China's Ascentage Pharma gets $150m in Series C funding
Ascentage Pharma, a Chinese biopharmaceutical company primarily focused on treatments for cancer, has raised $150 million in Series C funding.
The round was led by YuanMing Capital – a healthcare specialist that focuses on China-US cross-border deals – and Oriza Seed Venture Capital, a unit of Oriza Holdings. Both are existing investors in the company. They were joined by Teng Yue Partners and ArrowMark Partners, both of which are US-based hedge funds, as well as HDY International Investment, CTS Capital, and CCB International.
Founded in 2010, Ascentage develops novel small molecule therapies for cancers, hepatitis B, and age-related diseases. It specializes in therapeutics that inhibit protein-protein interactions to restore programmed cell death in cancers.
The technology comes out of the University of Michigan, where one of the three co-founders previously led the cancer drug discovery program. The company spun out from US-based Ascenta Therapeutics in 2009. Of the other two founders, one used to work for Pfizer and Monsanto while the other – CEO Dajun Yang – was formerly a managing director at Morningside Ventures.
Ascentage has a pipeline of seven clinical candidates, four focused on the global market and three on China only. One of these treatments is currently in stage-two clinical trials, while the rest are in stage one or earlier.
"With 16 active clinical trials in the US, Australia, and China, we believe that we are the only company with a robust portfolio of active clinical programs focused on both intrinsic and extrinsic apoptotic pathways and are pleased by the continued interest and support of our investor base to realize the full potential of protein-protein inhibition in addressing these complex, but highly promising, targets in cancer and other diseases," Yang said in a statement.
The company received $3 million in angel funding from listed Chinese biotech player 3SBio shortly after inception, and then a RMB95 million ($15 million) Series A round from Oriza and YuanMing. Domestic investors Efung Capital, Yuan Sheng Ventures and Grains Valley Capital also participated.
The Series B in 2016 was led by SDIC Fund Management, which manages capital for a range of Chinese government agencies and state-owned enterprises. It contributed RMB300 million out of a total of RMB500 million. Other participants included Shiyu Capital, and Qianlong Capital, as well as YuanMing and Oriza.
The latest investment continues the trend of sizeable later-stage rounds for Chinese biotech companies, prompting concern in some quarters about escalating valuations for unproven businesses. PE and VC investors have deployed $2.1 billion in the space so far this year, comfortably eclipsing the $1.3 billion total for 2017. As recently as 2014, investment was just $306.2 million.
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