Legend Capital leads $100m round for China’s Innovent Biologics

Temasek Holdings also came in as a new investor, while existing backers Fidelity Biosciences, Fidelity Growth Partners Asia, Lilly Asia Ventures and Frontline Bioventures also participated. The proceeds will go towards the development of Innovent's pipeline of eight antibody products, which focus on oncology, diabetes and autoimmune disease, and three treatments for which the firm has filed patent applications.

Innovent manufactures complex, high-end biologics with a view to establishing licensing agreements with global pharmaceutical companies. It wants to create its own treatments and also work in partnership with companies looking to develop and market biologic drugs in Asia.

The company has an R&D facility and manufacturing plants in Suzhou Industrial Park, Jiangsu province. This was set up with the support of BioBay, China's largest biomedical industrialization and platform that conforms to global standards.

Eli Lilly and the two Fidelity funds committed $25 million in Series B funding to Innovent in November 2012, according to AVCJ Research.

"We believe Innovent is inimitably positioned to both successfully develop its own internal pipeline of biologic compounds and, with its extensive manufacturing capabilities and relationship with the Chinese government, offer partners a cost-efficient option for developing and selling biologic drugs in China and other markets," Darren Cai, executive director at Legend Capital, said in a statement.

Legend Capital, which was set up in 2011 with support from Legend Holdings, parent company of Lenovo, closed its sixth US dollar-denominated China VC fund at $500 million last year.

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• Topics
• Healthcare
• Venture
• Expansion
• Greater China
• healthcare
• Growth capital
• China
• Legend Capital
• Temasek Holdings
• Fidelity Growth Partners