Qiming leads $21m round for Chinese cancer drug developer
China-based cancer drug developer Antengene Corporation has completed a $21 million Series A round of funding led by Qiming Venture Partners.
Local private equity firms including TF Capital and HG Capital also participated, alongside Tigermed Investment – the corporate VC arm of contract research organization (CRO) Tigermed.
Antengene was founded by Jay Wei, who previously worked at biotechnology company Celgene as an executive director of global clinical development. Based in Shanghai, the one-year-old company specializes in developing innovative cancer drugs for Asian markets. In April, Antengene gained China and East Asian rights to oncology candidate ATG-008 from Celgene, while Tigermed agreed to provide full clinical service to Antengene. Celgene’s ATG-008 has been tested in a phase one clinical trial in the US in combination with other drugs as a treatment for lung cancer.
Following the new funding round, Antengene plans to pursue clinical trials and commercialization for ATG-008 in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Thailand. In the meantime, the company is also in the process of building manufacturing facilities in Shaoxing city, Zhejiang province.
“China’s new drug development is at its critical moment. Its achievement in the next ten years will determine whether China can become a driving force of new drug development in the world. We believe Antengene will play an important role in this process,” William Hu, a managing partner at Qiming, said in a statement.
Qiming is currently investing its fifth US dollar fund, which closed at $648 million early last year. The firm focuses on early to growth-stage investments in the internet and consumer, healthcare, IT and cleantech areas. The firm - which has offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou and Hong Kong – announced plans to raise a healthcare-dedicated fund in the US last year, managed from its new office in Seattle.
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