China’s JW Therapeutics gets $90m Series A round
JW Therapeutics, a China-based clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, has raised $90 million in a Series A round of funding led by Temasek Holdings, Sequoia Capital China, and Yuan Ming Capital.
Other new investors include Oriza Seed Capital, Yipu Capital, and AVICT Holdings, while existing backers Juno Therapeutics and Wuxi AppTec have re-upped.
JW Therapeutics is a joint venture established in 2016 by Juno Therapeutics – a unit of global pharma player Celgene Corporation – and Wuxi AppTec, a Chinese contract research outsourcing provider. The Shanghai-based business focuses on developing treatments for cancer, specifically chimeric antigen receptor and T (CAR-T) cell therapy. It involves drawing blood from patients and separating out the T cells which are used to attack cancer cells.
“Sequoia China has always followed technological innovation and development in the healthcare industry closely. CAR-T cell therapy is one of the major breakthroughs in biotech,” Neil Shen, founding and managing partner of Sequoia China, said in a statement.
By combining Juno’s advanced technology with Wuxi AppTec’s local China know-how, as well as its R&D and manufacturing capabilities, JW aims to deliver cancer treatments to Chinese patients. It has one product in the clinical trials phase and another was recently accepted by the China Food & Drug Administration.
The fresh capital will go towards further development of the product in clinical trials, building out a new therapeutic pipeline, and constructing a new commercial manufacturing facility.
WuXi AppTec also set up WuXi NextCode, a wholly-owned genome sequencing subsidiary, following the acquisition of Nextcode Health from Amgen in 2015. The unit closed a $240 million extended Series B round last September led by Sequoia. This came four months after an initial round led by Temasek Holdings and Yunfeng Capital.
More on Greater China
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.