China's XW Laboratories raises $17.5m Series B

KTB Network also participated in the round as did existing investors Johnson & Johnson Innovation, WuXi Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the latter of which led a Series A in 2014. It brings the company’s total funding to date to $23 million.

The capital will be used to support a number of drug development programs that are progressing toward clinical-stage studies. The company is aiming to enter at least one product per year into the clinical trial stage, starting in 2018.

"Affordability in pharmaceutical products is a major problem that afflicts national healthcare systems globally,” Johnson Lin, a healthcare partner at WI Harper, said in a statement. “We believe that XW Labs' vision and expertise in creating innovative new drugs that focus on optimizing delivery and functional profiles, will significantly improve the value proposition of drugs for patients and payers.”

XW Laboratories focuses on therapies for nervous system disorders targeted primarily at the China market and developed via collaboration with foreign companies. Major accomplishments include participation in the identification of nine development candidate compounds that entered clinical trials, one of which received approval from US and Japanese regulators.

WI Harper invests across a range of technologies, with healthcare experience including deals in medical devices, pharmaceutical research, and technology-enabled health services. Last year, the firm raised a $175 million pan-Asian fund and helped launch a Sino-US fund aimed in part at a number of healthcare segments.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Healthcare
• Early-stage
• China
• WI Harper Group
• Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers
• Pharmaceuticals