Sinobest Bio Completes RMB 200 Million Series A+ Financing and Files for IPO; GeneRazor Focuses on Non-Viral In Vivo Gene Editing Therapeutics

In recent years, innovation in the healthcare and health industry has been constantly emerging, developing into one of the most active 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 regularly released to provide readers with industry information from multiple perspectives, including capital, policy, finance, new products, and more.

Medical and Health Industry Weekly Report for March 16th, Please Check. This weekly report includes financing news from the medical and health sector last week.

Financing and Investment

• With the premise of completing the commercial closed loop, "Rui Zheng Gene" focuses on the development of non-viral vector in vivo gene editing drugs | Early-stage project

By the end of 2023, the U.S. FDA successively approved two CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing therapies for marketing: Casgevy from Vertex Pharmaceuticals/CRISPR Therapeutics and Lyfgenia from bluebird bio, both indicated for sickle cell disease. From this point on, the era in which gene-editing therapy became a tangible treatment option, rather than merely a "fancy" scientific concept, has finally arrived.

In 2021, Dr. Wang Yongzhong, who once again embarked on entrepreneurship by founding the gene-editing company Rui Zheng Gene, was betting on such an era. By then, Wang had already successively attempted product development in various areas such as cell therapy and antibody drugs at multiple companies where he worked. He had also driven the dual filing of China's first innovative drug with sales exceeding 1 billion yuan—Conbercept—in both China and the U.S., successfully bringing it to market.

Based on nearly 20 years of scientific research, product project operations, and CEO management experience, Rui Zheng Gene currently has its in vivo gene-editing drug ART 001 for Transthyretin Amyloidosis (ATTR) entering the human clinical stage with relevant clinical data obtained. Additionally, the company has four gene-editing therapy pipelines at different stages under development...Click here for more details）

• Suzhou Yinghui Medical Technology Co., Ltd. Completes Tens of Millions of Yuan in Series A1 Financing

Suzhou Yinghui Medical Technology Co., Ltd. Successfully Completes Tens of Millions of Yuan in A1 Round Financing, Exclusively Invested by Shengyuan Zhiben. The funds from this round of financing will be used for Phase I clinical research of Yinghui Medicine's oncolytic virus product YH01. Suzhou Yinghui currently has five products, with the most advanced being YH01 targeting triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). In vivo and in vitro studies have shown that this product exhibits groundbreaking efficacy and is currently in Phase I clinical research.

• Simnova Completes RMB 200 Million Series A+ Financing

Simnova Completes RMB 200 Million Series A+ Financing Led by You Mountain Capital, with Participation from Oriza Ventures, Pudao Capital, and Guochuang Qinzhi; Heryue Capital Served as the Financial Advisor for This Round. Simnova is a clinical-stage cell therapy biotechnology company. The company's universal NK platform features an innovative CAR structure with proprietary intellectual property rights, along with mature and stable CMC capabilities for large-scale production of universal NK cells. The first CAR-NK pipeline, SNC103, has achieved positive results in the IIT phase and has entered Phase I clinical trials.

• HENGYU BIOTECH Completes Nearly 200 Million Yuan in Series B Financing

HENGYU BIOTECH recently announced the successful completion of a nearly 200-million-yuan Series B financing round, led by CMB International Capital, with participation from Heda Health, Hongcheng Investment, Jincheng Talent Fund, Jiashan IPO Cultivation Fund, and continued support from existing shareholders Chengshu Investment and Mr. Zheng Xiaodong, Chairman of Dongfu Dragon. Reportedly, the funds from this round will be used to further enhance the company’s international compliance quality system, expand its product lines, and accelerate the layout of overseas business.

• Xinyue Bio Completes Tens of Millions of Yuan in Series A Financing

Shenzhen Xinyue Biotechnology Co., Ltd. announced the completion of a multi-million RMB A-round financing, with the investor being the existing shareholder H&C Capital. This continued investment is both a recognition of Xinyue Biotechnology's past performance and an expectation of its future development potential. The proceeds of this financing will be used to accelerate the domestic Phase I clinical trial of the innovative drug ND-003 project in China, the construction of the DEL+X technology platform (including DEL+AI, i.e., SMART DEL, DEL+protac, and DEL+molecular probes), as well as for the preclinical and early clinical development of other projects within the company.

• Coze Yongxin Completes Tens of Millions of Financing

Small Nucleic Acid Raw Material Supplier Shanghai Coze Yongxin Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Announces Completion of Tens of Millions in Financing. This round of financing was jointly led by Jiale Capital and Guohai Innovation Capital, with Qifeng Capital serving as the exclusive financial advisor. The funds will be used for the research and development of new small nucleic acid delivery systems and the industrialization of small nucleic acid monomer raw materials. Coze Yongxin, established in 2023, was founded by a team of PhDs and postdoctoral researchers from ETH Zurich. It is a high-tech enterprise focused on the technical research, development, and production of core backbone raw materials for small nucleic acids.

• Simnova Completes 45 Million Yuan A Round Financing

Wuxi InnoSonics Medical Technology Co., Ltd. Completes 45 Million Yuan Series A Financing, Invested by Multiple Institutions Including Wuxi Guolian and Qiaojing Capital. InnoSonics is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the design, R&D, and production of ultrasonic transducers, mainly producing minimally invasive interventional ultrasound catheters and transducers, external conventional imaging probes, ultrasonic scalpel horns, ultrasound drug delivery devices, and related products.

• Chengdu Neutron Therapeutics Completes Over 300 Million Yuan in Series C Financing

Chengdu New Radiance Medical Technology Co., Ltd. recently announced the completion of a C-round financing exceeding 300 million yuan, jointly invested by Chengdu Science and Technology Investment, Chengdu BioCity Fund, Sichuan Venture Capital, and others, with continued support from existing shareholders such as Huaxing Kangping, Xinjun Capital, and Starry Sky Capital. The proceeds from this round of financing will be used for the research and development of urgently needed α radionuclides, innovative radiopharmaceutical R&D and clinical trials, and the construction of a 30MeV accelerator project, further establishing a global platform for the production of medical isotopes and innovative radiopharmaceuticals.

Overseas New Things

• X-Therma Raises $22.4 Million in Series B Funding to Develop Cryopreservation Technologies for Cells and Organs | Overseas New Things

X-Therma is a biotechnology company located in California, USA, dedicated to developing regenerative medicine and organ preservation technologies.

On March 13, X-Therma announced the completion of a $22.4 million Series B financing round. This round was co-led by new investor Starling Locke Capital and LOREA AG, the lead investor from the Series A round, with participation from other new and existing investors. The funds from this financing round will enable X-Therma to expand its global commercial operations and advance the development of multiple key products in its R&D pipeline into clinical research stages.

X-Therma Breaks Through Cold Chain Technology by Integrating Biopreservation Platforms to Provide Safe and Tailored Biological Samples Such as Organs, Cells, and Vaccines for Patients in Need. The company’s solutions can enhance critical biomanufacturing processes, enable safer transportation, and leverage biobanks for advanced cell therapies, assisted reproduction, organ transplantation, and other rapidly evolving fields of regenerative medicine. Currently, X-Therma is headquartered in Hercules, San Francisco Bay Area, with its operations in Austria continuously expanding. Its technology has the potential to create a paradigm shift, enabling global organ sharing and eliminating organ waiting lists worldwide…Click here for more details）

• Zephyr AI Completes $111 Million Series A Financing, AI + Precision Medicine Technology Gains Support from Eli Lilly | Overseas New Things

Zephyr AI is a healthcare technology company headquartered in Texas, USA, dedicated to developing data federation tools and various machine learning algorithms in the fields of oncology and cardiometabolic diseases, attempting to reshape drug discovery and precision medicine.

On March 13, Zephyr AI announced the successful completion of a $111 million Series A financing round, with participation from Revolution Growth, Eli Lilly, and EPIQ Capital Group. The funds from this round will help Zephyr AI further enhance analytical speed and strengthen its extensive training and validation datasets. Additionally, the funding will support the company’s expansion of its research and commercial teams to accelerate the delivery of its rapidly growing insights to the market.

The Zephyr AI team, composed of software engineers and biologists, leverages big data and next-generation technologies to explore new perspectives for improving disease stratification and prediction accuracy. They also build lasting partnerships with other enterprises to transform the treatment of cancer and cardiometabolic diseases. Currently, Zephyr AI is curating comprehensive healthcare datasets and integrating them with artificial intelligence algorithms to generate novel, translatable insights, thereby creating tools and products that support both patients and healthcare providers. The company’s platform facilitates rapid interpretation and exploration of data, algorithms, and insights through a web-based user interface. This interface not only meets the needs of external clients but also promotes the progress of internal research initiatives…Click here for more details）

2024 Healthcare Outlook

• Wang Weimin: Amid the Capital Winter, the Small Nucleic Acid Drug Sector Grows Against the Trend; Talent Shortage is the Biggest Issue | 2024 Healthcare Outlook

In the past year, quite a few developments have occurred in China's small nucleic acid drug sector. In terms of products, Novartis' PCSK9 inhibitor, Inclisiran Sodium Injection (Inclisiran), has been officially approved, and many small nucleic acid drugs have achieved positive clinical progress, indicating that the development potential and future commercial performance of small nucleic acid drugs remain promising. From a financing perspective, although the market conditions of the biopharmaceutical industry have further declined compared to 2022, small nucleic acid drugs have shown a counter-trend growth compared to other sectors, with many investments concentrated in early-stage projects.

In 2023, there were a total of 31 BD transactions in the global small nucleic acid field, with disclosed amounts exceeding 8 billion US dollars. MNCs such as Roche, Novo Nordisk, and GSK frequently appeared. The continuous BD transactions indicate that this track is not only favored by capital but also gaining attention from large pharmaceutical companies. In the early years, many MNCs actually entered this field, but due to technical barriers, they withdrew one after another. In recent years, with breakthroughs in small nucleic acid platform technology, many new research directions have been advanced. For example, chemical modifications have made its efficacy very stable, achieving long-lasting effects with injections every six months or even once a year, giving the small nucleic acid drug category a unique competitive advantage against small molecule and large molecule drugs, especially in the field of chronic diseases...Click here for more details）

• Wang Liqun: If a 2.0 product emerges, the "winter" of CGT will soon come to an end | 2024 Healthcare Outlook

In 2023, after China experienced more than a year of regulatory approval hiatus, two domestically produced CAR-T products from IASO Biotherapeutics and HCN Biotech were successively launched; pipelines of various cell therapies such as TIL, TCR-T, NK, and CAR-NK cells also entered clinical stages.

The obvious trend behind these events is that cell therapy has begun to extend beyond autologous CAR-T to other types. This is not only driven by the realities of funding and market competition but also represents an inevitable phase of technological development and a response to clinical demand.

Currently, the pricing of four domestically available autologous CAR-T cell therapies in China ranges from 1 to 1.3 million yuan. These can be collectively referred to as products of the "Cell Therapy 1.0 Era." The high cost associated with autologous applications determines that no matter how the model or operations change, the impact on commercialization will be limited. The best outcome would be maintaining current sales volumes and gradually attracting more patients through incremental price reductions.

Existing cost-reduction approaches, such as the replacement with domestically produced equipment and automation, can reduce costs within a small range. The development and application of these new technologies, including new demands in areas like cell culture, packaging materials, and equipment, also bring more opportunities to upstream and downstream players in the industry chain. For example, the previously mainstream autologous cell therapy did not have specific volume requirements, and typically used 100-200 milliliters bioreactor bags during preparation. However, scaled production of universal therapies will require the use of reactors, which may not be as large as those currently used for antibody drugs. For upstream manufacturers, this means developing another sales category of different sizes…Click here for more details）

Editor: Hai Ruojing