ReviR Therapeutics Secures $30M Series A Funding to Advance AI-Driven Targeted RNA Drug Discovery

In recent years, innovation in the healthcare and health industry has been emerging constantly, developing into one of the most dynamic industries. 36Kr has witnessed and accompanied the growth of innovative companies in this field, bringing a professional voice to the industry.

To this end, 36Kr has launched the "Healthcare Industry Weekly" column, which will be released regularly in the future to provide readers with industry information from multiple perspectives, including capital, policy, finance, new products, and more.

July 28 Healthcare Industry Weekly Report Please Review. This weekly report includes financing news in the healthcare sector for this week.

Financing and Investment

• "ReviR Therapeutics" Secures $30 Million in Series A Funding, AI Accelerates Targeted RNA Drug Development | 36Kr Exclusive

Recently, 36Kr learned that ReviR Therapeutics has completed a $30 million Series A financing round. This round was led by Lapam Capital, with continued investment from existing shareholders CDH Investments, FiveSource Capital, and Ya Yi Capital. Bivision Pharmaceuticals and the CMT Research Foundation (CMTRF) also participated in the investment.

This round of investment will be used to further develop ReviR's self-developed AI drug discovery platform, VoyageR, and integrate AI technology with the extensive drug development experience of the ReviR team. It will also continue to advance the existing pipeline for Huntington's disease (HD) as well as pipelines related to various neurological disorders such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) through preclinical and clinical stages.

ReviR Therapeutics, founded in 2021, is a biotechnology company that combines AI technology to develop small-molecule drugs targeting RNA. By leveraging cutting-edge technology and the AI-powered drug discovery platform VoyageR, the company conducts research on more effective and safer targeted RNA therapies, aiming to address the long-standing unmet clinical needs in oncology and genetic diseases...Click here for more details）

• Bivision Pharmaceuticals Completes Nearly 100 Million Yuan in Series A Financing

Bivision Pharmaceuticals Announces Completion of Nearly RMB 100 Million Series A Financing. This round of financing was jointly led by Huajin Investment and Huajin Avenue, with TAIHO Pharmaceutical following up, and continued investment from existing shareholders Gaorong Venture Capital and Licheng Capital. The funds will primarily be used for global Phase I/II clinical trials of JH02, IND applications and clinical development in China and the U.S. for 68Ga-JH03/177Lu-JH04, as well as preclinical research and international cooperation for several subsequent innovative pipeline projects.

• LightPulse Medical Completes Financing of Several Hundred Million Yuan

LightPulse Medical, a medical molecular imaging company, completes hundreds of millions in financing. This round of financing was led by the Shanghai Biomedical Fund, with participation from the SME Development Fund (Chengdu) managed by Oriental Fortune Capital. In 2007, LightPulse Medical was the first to apply Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) semiconductor detectors to the field of medical imaging, creating the world's first digital cardiac-dedicated Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) system, D-SPECT®. In 2018, LightPulse Medical launched VERITON-CT®, the first high-energy full-ring digital SPECT/CT product capable of direct imaging of various radionuclides such as I-131 for the global market, which efficiently achieves imaging and dosimetry of radiopharmaceuticals in vivo and has become an essential tool in nuclear medicine diagnosis and treatment.

• Value Medical Completes RMB Tens of Millions in Series A Financing

Zhejiang ZhiDe Medical Technology Co., Ltd. Completes Tens of Millions of Yuan in Series A Financing. This round of financing was led by Guangzhou JianSu Capital, with continuous follow-up investments, and participated by Hangzhou West Lake Sci-Tech Innovation Investment, Guangdong Jucheng Assets, and others. The funds from this round will mainly be used for clinical research, product development and certification of intelligent wearable medical devices for idiopathic scoliosis, the construction of a talent pipeline for R&D and operational management, as well as establishing flagship offline medical service institutions closely aligned with clinical needs in several central cities.

• Huiguan Bio Completes Pre-A Round Financing Worth Tens of Millions of Yuan

Wuhan Huiguan Biotechnology Co., Ltd., a provider of advanced biomedical imaging technology, has completed a Pre-A round of financing worth tens of millions of yuan. This round was jointly invested by Wuhan Yifeng Zhuohua Venture Capital Partnership and Guangdong Tiexin Capital Co., Ltd. The funds will be used to enhance the company's R&D capabilities, expand product line layouts, broaden market development, and optimize upstream and downstream segments of the industry chain. Founded in September 2022, Huiguan Biotechnology focuses on the development of advanced cellular imaging technologies. The company leverages its self-innovated light field modulation technology and brain-inspired AI image algorithms as core technologies, aiming to provide the market with high-end imaging instruments and services.

36Kr New Trends

• Are the Synthetic Biology Strains That Cost Billions in Capital Starting to Make Money? | 36Kr New Trends

In 2024, after reviewing hundreds of synthetic biology startups, investor Zhang Yi (pseudonym) still hesitated to make a move. The fund he works for has sufficient capital and is determined to invest in this future-oriented track, but they haven't found the ideal target yet.

The technological craze of "rationally designing life and synthesizing everything" combined with the drive of China's "dual carbon" policies, made synthetic biology a major focus in the primary market in 2021. During those years of capital bubbles, some startups saw their valuations inflated to 2-3 billion RMB, but they have yet to achieve scale performance, with PS multiples remaining excessively high—"even at a discount, they're unsustainably expensive."

Zhang Yi once considered investing in early-stage technology companies with low valuations that produce bulk products (such as lipids, acids, alcohols, etc.) according to the logic of biomanufacturing. However, this would require small companies to raise substantial capital to build large factories, secure carbon sources, and challenge the cost structures of industry giants, making it an exceedingly difficult proposition. After comparing the options, he has tentatively decided to focus on high-value-added compounds and search for a blockbuster product similar to recombinant collagen.

In terms of molecule selection, Ma Rui, a partner at Fengrui Capital, is looking for products that strike a balance between "production scale, added value, and market potential." He believes that products with a production scale of 5,000 to 10,000 tons, a certain threshold for mass production, relatively high added value, and good market potential are more reliable choices now, rather than pursuing new molecules with ultra-high added value or bulk commodities with production scales of hundreds of thousands or even millions of tons...Click here for more details）

• 360 Million People with Dry Eye: There’s More to Do Than “Spending Money on Artificial Tears” | Yike

When her eyes became unbearably dry once again, Yang Lei stopped typing and instinctively reached for the sodium hyaluronate eye drops in her tote bag. Three months after being diagnosed with dry eye syndrome, she still relied heavily on artificial tears. In this media company, "people who pay for tears" were not uncommon, as almost everyone’s work was inseparable from computer and mobile phone screens.

Compared with blinding diseases such as glaucoma and cataracts, the clinical pain points of dry eye syndrome are not as severe, but this does not stop some patients from describing the experience of having the condition as "not life-threatening, but making life unbearable."

"It's a complete vicious cycle." Faced with a heavy workload, the doctor's suggestion to "use your eyes less and rest more" seems like a luxury. Yang Lei could only cut down on the time spent on her phone during her leisure hours. Even so, the occasional bouts of dryness, foreign body sensation, and burning sensations would still slow down her progress in writing drafts, exacerbate daily anxiety, and lead to insomnia. Poor sleep quality further aggravated her dry eye symptoms, continuing to disrupt her life to the point where Yang Lei "seriously considered changing careers several times."

In "intensive eye-use industries" such as IT, design, and the Internet, there are indeed cases of people switching careers due to the heavy strain on their eyes. In the era of electronic screens, mobile phones have become a "new human organ." Dry eye syndrome, which was originally more common as a degenerative disease, is now increasingly appearing in younger populations.

According to data from the "2023 White Paper on the Mid-to-High-End Ophthalmology Equipment Industry": In 2022, the number of dry eye patients in China approached 360 million. Among every four Chinese people, one may be affected by this condition...Click here for more details）

• Is It Worth Spending 200,000 Yuan a Year to Delay My Mother's Alzheimer's Disease? | Yi氪

Loss of control often occurs suddenly, even though there may have been warning signs in some minor incidents beforehand.

When Zhang Li's mother began experiencing symptoms such as dizziness and poor memory, she was diagnosed with mild cerebral infarction, which was "thought to be not serious." However, one day, after failing to redeem a coupon on a shopping app, she suddenly "became extremely agitated, feeling like she couldn’t do anything." Soon after, she forgot her own name, her family’s names, and the layout of her home. It wasn’t until her sense of direction and security completely disappeared that a doctor informed Zhang Li: this was Alzheimer's disease (AD), commonly referred to as "senile dementia."

Clinically, this is often the starting point for many Alzheimer's patients and their families to seek medical consultation. However, in terms of disease progression, most patients have already reached the "irreversible" moderate to severe stage by this point, making drug treatment largely ineffective.

Until recently, two treatments for early-stage Alzheimer's disease have made progress: In early July, Eli Lilly's Aβ-targeting new drug Donanemab was approved for marketing in the United States, becoming the second AD treatment drug to receive full FDA approval; currently, this product has also been included in the priority review list by China's National Medical Products Administration. Another similar AD drug from Biogen/Eisai was approved earlier and has recently been put into clinical use in China...Click here for more details）

• Baidu's AI Large Model Still Has a Way to Go Before Clinical Application | Frontline

AI Continues to "Soar." Almost everyone has been immersed in the euphoria or astonishment brought by concepts such as "multimodal" and "large models." However, at present, how to integrate AI into industries and how to leverage AI to produce real efficiency have become hot topics of discussion.

Specifically, at the application level, "technology first, scenario foremost" is the basic logic.

"Compared to 'AI + Healthcare', I think it's more about 'Healthcare + AI'. Our role is to be an enabler, serving patients, doctors, and medicine." At the recently held Baidu Health Industry Ecosystem Conference, He Mingke, President of Baidu's Health Business Group, repeatedly emphasized "empowerment" when discussing the company’s positioning.

Empowerment Based on What Scenarios? Centering on the strategy of "patient healthcare journey as the main pathway, penetrating all aspects of doctors, patients, and pharmaceuticals," Baidu Health has currently developed five major products: the AI Health Assistant for general users, the Online Medical Copilot serving both doctors and patients, the "AI Smart Outpatient" system primarily targeting hospitals, the private deployment product CDSS based on large models, and the Lingyi Open Platform product mainly for enterprises.

The Lingyi Open Platform will offer 10 million tokens of free API quota to medical service providers. It is reported that, in pure B2B scenarios, Baidu Health has formed a capability set of 5 core APIs + 3 product suites + N basic APIs. The number of paying clients in the industry has exceeded 100, helping enterprises improve quality, increase efficiency, and reduce costs...Click here for more details）

Editor: Hai Ruojing