Sailing invests $30.6m in China-US biopharma player
Sailing Capital has invested $30.6 million in Cellular Biomedicine Group (CBMG), a China and US-based biopharmaceutical company focused on immunotherapy cancer treatments.
The private equity firm committed capital from its first international fund, which launched in 2013 with a corpus of about $1 billion. The NASDAQ-listed company will use the funding to support a number of clinical development programs targeting lymphoma and novel T-cell receptor therapies for solid tumors.
CBMG - which has development partnerships with General Electric's china life sciences division and Themo Fisher - is currently pursuing China Food & Drug Administration (CFDA) approval and commercialization. It has demonstrated clinical proof-of-concept of an immuno-oncology platform known as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell, or CAR-T.
"With the recent regulatory approvals and commercialization of CAR-T in the US and the CFDA's issuance of final guidance for the approval of CAR-T in China, we believe an investment in CBMG is timely as the China market opportunity for cell and gene therapy is substantial," Bosun Hau, managing director and partner at Sailing, said in a statement.
Shanghai and Hong Kong-based Sailing manages the first cross-border, renminbi-denominated private equity fund. The vehicle aims to aid overseas acquisitions by Chinese companies, participating throughout the capital structure, while supporting renminbi globalization. It focuses on the healthcare, technology, and consumer sectors.
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