Healthcare Industry Weekly Report: 43 Financing Deals Globally, 16 in China — Innovations in Synthetic Biology and Disposable Endoscopes Gain Traction

【Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapy】Wuhan Hongchen Innovation Biotechnology Co., Ltd. was established in 2023 as a high-tech enterprise dedicated to the research and development of innovative stem cell therapies. Starting with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), the company provides scalable, low-cost stem cell treatment solutions for critical diseases such as spinal cord injuries, which currently lack substantial clinical solutions.

【Investor】Ruijiang Investment, Jiadao Private Capital

【Small Nucleic Acid Drugs】Suzhou Rigerna Therapeutics and Beijing Rigerna Rui Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd were established in 2022. The companies focus on the research and development and industrialization of innovative small nucleic acid drugs, based in China and targeting the global market, with the ambition to become a leading player and innovator in the nucleic acid pharmaceuticals field. The companies have gathered a core team with over 10 years of industry experience, possessing extensive expertise in various aspects such as nucleic acid biology, nucleic acid chemistry, liver and non-liver delivery, project management, pharmaceutical research, regulatory submissions, and clinical development. To address key technological bottlenecks, intellectual property barriers, and future development directions in this field, the companies have built proprietary global intellectual property core technology platforms including RIHOST, RICMO, and LICOD, and have developed multiple in vivo delivery technologies for non-liver tissues based on several exclusive strategies.

【Investor】Qihang Investment, Shanghai Science and Technology Investment, Jinsanjing United Capital Runpu Fund, Yuanxi Haihe Fund, Sanyi Innovation Investment, Xincheng Fund

【Parkinson's Stem Cell Therapy】XsellSmart was founded in 2021 by Dr. Li Xiang, a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the School of Life Sciences at Peking University and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. The company is committed to providing scalable, low-cost stem cell therapy solutions for major diseases such as Parkinson's disease, which currently lack substantial clinical solutions. Under the comprehensive leadership of founder Dr. Li Xiang: XsellSmart has assembled a full-time team of over a hundred people, including 20 Ph.D./postdoctoral fellows. Core team members come from renowned universities and colleges or well-known companies in the cell therapy industry worldwide. The team possesses cutting-edge stem cell therapy technologies and transformation experience from both international and industrial perspectives. XsellSmart has established key technology platforms, including iPS cell line reprogramming, iPSC gene editing, and iPSC differentiation into various subtypes of cell types, and has laid out a global technical patent system; completed GMP-grade iPSC cell lines; and developed animal models for evaluating the safety and efficacy of cell drugs. XsellSmart’s self-designed and constructed R&D center, GMP pilot workshop, and quality control center, covering thousands of square meters, can meet and realize the scaled production of various clinical-grade iPS-derived cells. The core pipeline of XsellSmart’s iPS differentiation into dopamine neuron precursor cells for treating Parkinson’s disease is expected to enter the clinical stage in 2024.

【Investor】Tylon Venture Capital, FreesFund, Qiming Venture Partners, Lilly Asia Ventures, Sequoia Capital China, Tianhui Capital

【Chronic Inflammation Drugs】Zedman Pharmaceuticals is a global innovative drug research and development company focusing on the development of therapeutic drugs for autoimmune inflammatory diseases related to the AhR target. Zedman deeply focuses on the field of immune-mediated related diseases and is dedicated to the research and development of innovative drugs in disease areas with significant clinical needs, such as the central nervous system,五官 (five senses), respiratory system, and skin. As a pioneering leading figure in the international field of immunological small molecule new drugs, Dr. Genghui Chen, CEO of Zedman Pharmaceuticals, is a co-inventor of the world's first topical new drug targeting AhR. He has led the entire process from discovery, clinical trials, industrialization to registration and market launch. This drug has been approved for marketing in China and the United States and is the first original topical new drug that was launched in China prior to overseas markets.

【Investor】Bainuo Capital, Hanking Capital, Beta Fund

【Animal Model】XsellSmart is one of the first batch of result-hatching enterprises of Bio Island Lab, focusing on the development and application of the world's most advanced new generation of animal model technology (TurboMice™ tetraploid compensation technology). It is currently the only company in the world to realize the industrial application of tetraploid compensation technology from the laboratory. XsellSmart is committed to providing cutting-edge, high-end, swift, and excellent model organism technical services and model resources for global innovative drug companies, vaccine enterprises, universities, scientific research institutes, hospitals, and other life health-related research teams. Currently, XsellSmart has completed an angel round of financing of more than ten million yuan. In the 11th China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2022, it won the first place in the biomedicine start-up group in Guangdong Province and Guangzhou City.

【Investor】Gaojie Capital

【Vaccine CDMO】Shanghai Wuxi AppTec Haid Biological Technology Co., Ltd. is a joint venture established by Hile Bio-Technology and Wuxi Biologics, providing an end-to-end service and solution platform for human vaccine discovery, development, and production from concept to commercial-scale manufacturing. The company mainly engages in contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) services for human vaccines (including cancer vaccines) and is committed to building an integrated capability and technology platform that leads the global vaccine industry.

【Investor】WuXi Biologics

【Disposable Endoscope】Shenzhen StarSea Medical Technology Co., Ltd. was established in October 2020, with its headquarters located in Nantai Cloud Creation Valley, Phoenix Street, Guangming District, Shenzhen. The company is an innovative medical technology enterprise specializing in the business of disposable endoscopic interventional diagnosis and treatment, integrating research and development, production, sales, and service. Its product planning covers the fields of urology, ICU, gynecology, emergency, and anesthesia. The founding team of StarSea comes from leading domestic and international medical device companies, possessing over a decade of extensive experience in endoscopic product research and development, global marketing, and production management.

【Investor】Yuansheng Ventures, Legend Capital, Daotong Investment

【Medical Device Export Service Provider】XsellSmart, as an S2b cross-border e-commerce company specializing in the export of medical devices, focuses on equipment and consumables for imaging and laboratory departments. By selecting premium medical devices produced in China and utilizing an efficient data-driven marketing system, the company provides high-quality after-sales service to enhance the influence of Chinese medical devices overseas. In the future, XsellSmart will continue to deepen its presence in the overseas medical device market, helping more medical device companies successfully expand internationally while also enabling hospitals in developing countries to reduce costs and lower medical expenses through cost-effective Chinese-produced medical devices.

【Investor】Become Capital

【Intelligent Diagnosis and Treatment of Cerebrovascular Diseases】XsellSmart (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. was established in September 2016 and is located in Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, Beijing. It is an industry-leading enterprise specializing in the field of intelligent diagnosis and treatment of cerebrovascular diseases. The company is committed to creating an AI-driven "full autopilot" solution for the new generation of neurointerventional treatments, providing an integrated hardware-software solution through AI treatment + AI decision-making to address critical bottlenecks in clinical diagnosis and treatment. Its services cover national neurological disease centers, provincial and municipal key hospitals, as well as grassroots hospitals. Additionally, based on its proprietary intellectual property platform for intelligent diagnosis and treatment of cerebrovascular diseases, it provides health education, screening, physical examinations, and follow-up services for hundreds of millions of potential cerebrovascular patients and high-risk populations. XsellSmart is a National High-tech Enterprise, a National Specialized, Professional, Unique, and Innovative "Little Giant" enterprise, and a National Intellectual Property Advantage Enterprise. In 2023, it was listed on the Hurun Global Cheetah Enterprises list. XsellSmart maintains close medical-engineering collaboration with the National Neurological Disease Center, jointly developing original Chinese and internationally pioneering products. Its technical level and independent R&D capabilities are leading in the industry.

【Investor】Investment in Pharmaceutical and Health Industry

【Smart Health AI Hardware】ThingX is a consumer technology company focused on intelligent health AI hardware. Its technology originates from the Embedded Intelligence and IoT Lab team at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, with nearly 20 years of fundamental research and application development experience in fields such as multimodal sensing, embedded AI, and digital biomarker mining, with related research investments exceeding HKD 100 million. In terms of industrial implementation, team members bring work experience from companies like Ubtech, Anker, and Transsion, spanning supply chain, product development, and brand globalization.

【Investor】Undisclosed

【AI + Psychological Diagnosis and Treatment】Shenzhen Mirror Image Technology Co., Ltd. is a psychological AI technology enterprise that utilizes AI emotional technology to serve the mental health market. It provides integrated mental health services, including AI mental health checkups, AI intelligent venting, and AI self-help for depressive emotions, to businesses, individuals, and scenarios in need of mental health services. Relying on the University of Cambridge and East China Normal University in Shanghai, and based on clinical psychology and its knowledge system, combined with the research achievements of intelligent neural networks from the University of Cambridge's artificial intelligence laboratory, Mirror Image Technology has developed China’s first AI model with an evidence-based medical foundation through extensive mental health consultation data from both domestic and international sources, undergoing continuous iterative training. This model is named the "AI Psychological Clinical Large Model." The company is dedicated to using artificial intelligence to integrate multi-dimensional recognition functions such as video, voice, and semantics to innovatively develop products that form a closed-loop digital service platform for screening and healing mental health issues. This empowers early screening, early diagnosis, early intervention, and big data early warning management for public mental health problems. Currently, Mirror Image Technology’s adult mental health screening solution has obtained a Class II Medical Device Registration Certificate from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), and its business model has been validated across multiple application scenarios.

【Investor】Baidu Doctor

【Third-Generation Recombinant Botulinum Toxin】Suzhou Ruozhi Biotechnology Co., Ltd. is a biotechnology startup incubated by ShanghaiTech University. The company's R&D center is located in the Zhangjiang High-Tech Park in Pudong New Area, Shanghai, and its commercial production workshop is situated in the Kunshan Small Nucleic Acid Science and Technology Industrial Park. Ruozhi Biotechnology focuses on the research and application of original “0 to 1” biotechnologies and is dedicated to the development of pharmaceuticals with consumer attributes. Its core R&D pipeline currently involves third-generation recombinant botulinum toxin protein drugs; its key production process platform is a synthetic biology platform based on an industrial-level insect cell-baculovirus system (the only known insect cell platform in China that has resolved issues of endogenous viral contamination and passage stability); its core technology platform is AI-driven protein design and engineering.

【Investor】Kunshan Angel Fund

【Negative Carbon Synthetic Biology】Shanghai Sipeng Technology Co., Ltd. was founded in 2022 as a new technology company focusing on negative-carbon synthetic biology. The company has developed an advanced bio-manufacturing platform for bulk chemicals based on intelligent metabolic reprogramming, with multiple products already applied in industrial use. It is also achieving the direct one-step synthesis of polylactic acid (PLA) from carbon dioxide.

【Investor】SDIC Creation

【Biodegradable Materials】Element Drive, established in 2021, is a key incubation project of the New Quality Productivity Cultivation Platform at the Future Industry Research Center of Westlake University. It focuses on the development and industrialization of biodegradable materials and soybean meal-free feed technology. The company's founder and chief scientist, Dr. Kechun Zhang, graduated from the California Institute of Technology, where he studied under synthetic biology leaders such as David A. Tirrell. Before returning to China, Dr. Zhang was a tenured professor at the University of Minnesota and has over 20 years of research experience in the field of synthetic biology.

【Investor】China Merchants Venture Capital, Westlake Photon

【Laboratory Automation】XsellSmart is headquartered in Zhangjiang Science City, Shanghai. The founding team comes from Fortune 500 companies in the fields of robotics and life sciences, with a deep scientific research background and extensive product development experience. XsellSmart is committed to accelerating the intelligent automation transformation in the life sciences field. By utilizing leading robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence technologies, it provides more accessible and efficient automation products and solutions for various fields such as small molecule drugs, biologics, cell and gene therapies, traditional Chinese medicine, synthetic biology, omics research, clinical diagnostics, and materials science.

【Investor】Panlin Capital, Qiming Venture Partners, Boyuan Capital