US, China-based Terns Pharma secures $80m Series B

Decheng Capital joined as a new investor alongside existing backer Lilly Asia Ventures. It comes as the company readies a preclinical program for two products targeting a severe form of liver disease known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

"Terns leverages a combination of expertise in disease biology, medicinal chemistry, and extensive clinical development capabilities to build its high-quality and diverse pipeline for the treatment of NASH, offering an incredible opportunity to bring potentially promising new therapies to patients," Shan Fu, a managing director and co-CEO at Vivo said in a statement. 

Although headquartered in the US, Terns develops its drug candidates in China with a view to marketing them locally. Its lead NASH products are expected to begin trials in the first half of next year. NASH is associated with rising rates of obesity and is estimated to impact 20% of Chinese with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. 

Vivo, a healthcare-focused firm that operates across the US and China, claims substantial experience in the development of therapeutics for NASH and expects to add value to Terns. The VC was active in the NASH space as recently as June when it joined Lilly Asia in a $65 million Series C round for US-based Metacrine.

OrbiMed is deploying its third Asia fund, which closed last year at the hard cap of $551 million. Previous experience with companies researching NASH includes an investment in China-owned Echosens, which was exited earlier this year. Last week, the firm led a $60 million round for NASH specialist 89Bio.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• North America
• Healthcare
• Early-stage
• China
• USA
• OrbiMed
• Lilly Asia Ventures
• Vivo Ventures
• Pharmaceuticals