Warburg Pincus leads Series B for China's Haihe Pharmaceutical

CMB International, Legend Capital, CICC Capital, Beijing Langzi Asiana Asset Management, Chaos Investment, Winfast Holding, and a science and innovation unit under Shanghai International Group also took part in the round. Several Series A investors, including Yingke PE, BioTrack Capital, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, and Chinese Academy of Sciences-backed Liansheng Ventures, re-upped.

Haihe raised $146.6 million in Series A funding – led by local private equity firm Huagai Capital – in February 2019.

The company was established in 2018 through the merger of Haihe Pharmaceutical, and RMX Biopharma, another Chinese oncology drug developer. Of its 11 core products, eight are currently in clinical trials and five have received initial investigational new drug (IND) licenses in the US, the step that precedes clinical trials.

The four treatments that are in or have just concluded stage-three trials include: Liporaxel, a stomach and breast cancer drug that has already been approved for launch in Korea; ON101, a traditional Chinese medicine that reduces wound inflammation; Lucitanib, a drug that targets solid tumors; and Simmitecan, a tumor treatment for which Haihe has exclusive global rights.

The company has also built a pre-clinical evaluation platform and clinical study system that covers drug R&D procedures, quality studies, formulation development, pharmacological and pharmacodynamics evaluation, biomarker discovery and validation of medical strategies and clinical studies.

Min Fang, a partner at Warburg Pincus, said in a statement that Haihe represents the firm’s first large-scale investment in China’s innovative drug space. He added that he sees huge growth potential in this area, with anti-tumor drugs likely to lead the way. Warburg Pincus will use its healthcare resources and expertise within China and overseas to support Haihe’s development.

Within China’s broader healthcare sector, the PE firm is an investor in radiotherapy business Hygeia Healthcare, which recently completed a Hong Kong IPO, and it made a partial exit this month from Hong Kong-listed IVF services provider Jinxin Fertility. Warburg Pincus is also involved in a take-private of US-listed China Biologic and it owns DKSH China Healthcare, a pharmaceuticals and medical device distribution business.

CEC Capital served as Haihe's exclusive financial advisor for the Series B round.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Healthcare
• Early-stage
• China
• Warburg Pincus Asia
• Pharmaceuticals
• CICC