China cell therapy developer Neowise raises $29m

Shenzhen-listed urban mine resource exploitation company GEM Group, TongGao Capital, Zhongxin Capital, and Suzhou-based Leader Venture Capital also participated. Existing investor TF Capital re-upped.

Songming Peng, who founded Neowise in 2020, is also a co-founder of PACT Pharma, a US-based T-cell therapy start-up backed by TF and Sinopharm Capital.

Neowise focuses on T-cell receptor-based therapy (TCR) for solid tumours. When traditional methods fail to treat certain forms of cancer, patients can turn to cell therapy. This typically involves using genetically engineered T cells – an important part of the immune system – to attack tumours.

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) immunotherapy start-ups have attracted the most funding in this area. Both CAR-T and TCR involve extracting immune cells from a patient, modifying them, and then returning them to the host to attack tumours. The main difference is that each process recognizes different antigens when cells are introduced back to the host.

In January, Iaso Biotherapeutics, a Chinese CAR-T developer raised nearly CNY 500m in an extended Series C. Last year, Shanghai-based cell therapy developer Neukio Biotherapeutics raised USD 50m in the first tranche of a Series A.

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