China's Canton Biologics raises $41m Series C
Chinese pharmaceutical industry services provider Canton Biologics has completed a CNY 300m (USD 41m) Series C round led by state-owned SDIC Venture Capital.
Guangdong Technology Financial Group, Taipu Life Science Investment, and Chnin Financial also participated. It follows a Series B of undisclosed size in 2021 and several tranches of Series A funding between 2017 and 2020.
Founded in 2016, Canton is an end-to-end contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and contract research organization (CRO) for the large-molecule, or biologics, segment.
Biological products are highly complex molecules made from living organisms with delicate handling requirements. Biologics has emerged as an important category of drug development in the past 20 years, with breakthrough advances in disease management. Work in this field often includes manufacturing generic versions of existing biologics called biosimilars.
The company claims to have achieved "outstanding” results in high-yield cell line development, complex protein expression capabilities, and international manufacturing. It highlighted an ability to quickly take customers' therapeutics into clinical trials as a key differentiator. In some cases, this means a programme can be transitioned from DNA synthesis to CMC (chemistry, manufacturing, and controls) production in only seven months.
“This financing round will further bolster our progress in biotechnological R&D, strengthen our global presence, perpetually support our partners, and ultimately serve more patients,” CEO Xiao Shen said in a statement.
SDIC said it was bullish on Canton’s prospects for global expansion, calling the company a “flagship entity” in the large-molecule drug CDMO sphere. It also praised the company’s technical foundations in proprietary cell line development, pre-clinical pharmaceutical formulation, large-scale commercial manufacturing, and integrated clinical supply chain management.
SDIC is a frequent biotech investor, active in the sector as recently as July when it led a CNY 700m Series A for inflammation and tumours-focused developer Pyrotech Therapeutics. It invested in the CRO category last December, leading a CNY 500m Series D for Safe Pharmaceutical Research Institute.
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