China's Alebund Pharma gets $145m in debt, equity funding
Alebund Pharmaceuticals has raised close to CNY 200m (USD 29m) in a pre-Series C funding round. Investors include state-owned Yangzhou Guojin Investment and Yangzhou Longchuan Holdings.
Jiangsu Dingxin Capital, an undisclosed international sovereign fund, Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV), Quan Capital, 3H Health, Octagon Capital, and Verition Fund also participated in the round, the proceeds of which will go towards R&D.
The company has also secured a syndicated bank loan of CNY 800m that will be used to build manufacturing bases in Yangzhou dedicated to small-molecule drugs.
Alebund was established in Shanghai in 2018. One of the co-founders - and still the CEO - is Gavin Xia, who has been a venture partner at LAV since 2015.
The company focuses on nephrology and has a pipeline of small-molecule and large-molecule drugs targeting kidney diseases. It has three innovative drugs in stage one, two, and three clinical trials, respectively. One or two more in-house-developed drugs will enter clinical trials by 2024.
Xia said in a statement that an IPO would be initiated soon.
An increasing number of novel drug developers are gaining traction in China, where biotech start-ups have traditionally in-licensed intellectual property from overseas. Recent activity includes a USD 40m Series B for Eluminex Biosciences, an eye treatment specialist.
The big question for novel drug developers is whether their commercialisation potential can be fully realised under China’s National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL) regime, which oversees coverage by government-backed insurance plans. Inclusion promises wider distribution but only in return for steep price cuts.
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