Sequoia leads $150m Series B for China's Visen Pharma

OrbiMed, Sherpa Healthcare Partners, Cormorant Asset Management, HBM Healthcare Investments, Pivotal bioVenture Partners China, Logos Capital, and CDG Capital, also joined the round. Existing backers Ascendis Pharma, Vivo Capital, and Sofinnova Investments re-upped.

Visen was formed in 2018 by Ascendis and seeded by a group including Vivo and Sofinnova. It specializes in endocrinology therapies for the Greater China market. This field, which focuses on glands and hormones, is considered underdeveloped in China versus Europe and the US. Dandan Dong, a managing director at Vivo and board member of Visen, described the company as “the leading endocrinology expert in China.”

Visen has three drug candidates in its pipeline, two of which are in phase-two trials and one in phase three. The more advanced asset is targeting pediatric growth hormone deficiency (GHD), which is caused by impaired production or secretion of human growth hormone in children.

Patients with GHD often undergo thousands of daily injections over many years of therapy, resulting in a high treatment burden and poor treatment compliance. Visen’s product reduces the number of injections needed by 86% compared to standard treatments, easing this burden.

“Series B funding will help to accelerate our clinical development, manufacturing, and commercialization of our three leading products and establish a strong foundation on which we will enrich our pipeline from diversified international partnerships,” Pony Lu, CEO of Visen, said in a statement.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Healthcare
• Technology
• Early-stage
• China
• Sequoia Capital
• OrbiMed
• Pivotal Bioventure Partners China
• Vivo Ventures
• Pharmaceuticals