Biopharma Funding Shows Signs of Recovery: Multiple Companies Announce Major Financing Rounds and Prepare IPO Filings

　　【Pharmaceutical Network Industry DynamicsIn the past two years, the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology industry financing has entered a low period. The industry provided a set of data showing that in 2023, there were 1,911 financing events in China's healthcare sector, down 12.2% year-on-year; the total financing amount was 189.2 billion RMB, down 32.1% year-on-year. In addition, as the A-share IPO policies tightened, it further brought challenges to pharmaceuticals and biotech investments. The number of pharmaceutical companies that terminated their IPO reached 39, including 21 from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, mainly concentrated in the CXO, medical devices, and pharmaceutical fields.
 

Entering 2024, the biopharmaceutical market investment and financing seem to show signs of recovery. Recently, several pharmaceutical companies, such as Beijing Yanming Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Beijing HC-Innovation Tech Co., Ltd., and ICE Bioscience, have announced the completion of large-scale financing.
 

On May 27, Beijing Yanming Biotechnology Co., Ltd. announced the completion of its RMB hundreds of millions Series A+ round of financing. This round was led by the Beijing Medical and Health Industry Investment Fund, with participation from Baiyang Pharmaceutical Fund. Existing investors including Frees Fund, Taiping Medical and Health Fund, Lilly Asia Ventures, China Venture Capital Fund, Qinglan Fund, and Zhong Development Leading Creation/Life Park Venture Capital Fund continued to increase their investments.
 

Public information shows that Beijing Yanming Biotechnology Co., Ltd. is a company dedicated to developing revolutionary innovative drugs for the treatment of inflammation and tumors. The funds raised from this round of financing will be used to support the clinical research of the ALPK1 small molecule agonist PTT-936, as well as the clinical advancement of innate immune inhibitors and pyroptosis inhibitors, accelerate the research progress of multiple preclinical projects, further expand the R&D pipeline, and boost the development of Beijing's pharmaceuticals and healthcare industry.
 

Early May News: Beijing HC-Innovation Tech Co., Ltd. announced the completion of a nearly 100-million-yuan B+ round of financing. The investors include Yizhuang Guotou and Cloud Ocean Capital, with the former valuing the company at 1 billion yuan post-investment. The funds from this round of financing will mainly be used for the continuous enhancement of core technology research, the development of next-generation products, and market expansion. It is reported that HC-Innovation is a biosecurity and military supplies digital intelligence management service provider. Its Smart Blood Safety Supervision Platform is applied throughout the entire blood management process, achieving automated, visualized, and intelligent safety monitoring and management. Its Biosecurity Online Digital Intelligence Supervision Platform can implement online supervision and closed-loop disposal for provincial pathogenic microorganism laboratories.
 

On May 15, it was reported that Shenzhen Jiyin Biotechnology Co., Ltd. completed an angel+ round of financing worth tens of millions of yuan. This round of financing was invested by Tiantu Capital, and the funds will mainly be used for the optimization and upgrading of the core technology platform and the advancement of clinical-stage work for the in vivo CAR-T pipeline. Public information shows that Jiyin Bio is an innovative company dedicated to providing affordable universal cell therapy drugs for cancer patients. The company's in vivo CAR-T therapeutic drug has completed preclinical research and is actively promoting investigator-initiated clinical trials (IIT).
 

News on May 14, ICE Bioscience InC. has recently completed its B++ round of financing. This round was led by Yizhuang Guotou, with existing shareholder Yahu Investment continuing to increase its stake. The funds will support ICE Bioscience in providing better and more optimized services to pharmaceutical companies worldwide. As a biology CRO specializing in drug discovery for novel targets, ICE Bioscience focuses on new targets, methods, and technologies in drug discovery. It has established an integrated platform for target-driven drug discovery biology. Serving over 1,000 new drug development enterprises globally, the company has built a comprehensive, one-stop service platform from drug target validation to in vivo efficacy validation across multiple dimensions including molecules, cells, tissues, organs, and animals. Every year, it supports dozens of R&D projects in their IND filings.
 

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