AstraZeneca-CICC and CCBIF Co-lead $450M+ Financing Round in Tencell Therapeutics to Advance Immune Cell Therapy Development

Recently, a frontier company in the field of immune cell therapyBeijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co.,Ltd.Announced the completion of a new round of financing exceeding 300 million yuan,Led by AstraZeneca-CICC Healthcare Fund and Jianxin (Beijing) Investment Fund, with existing shareholders ETP, Share Investment, DT Capital, and Fang Group also participating.。

This round of financing will accelerate the research and development of its immune cell products, expand the product pipeline, and support the clinical development and commercialization preparation of the company's core products simultaneously in China and the United States. It will also recruit and build a scaled, internationally leading team to provide patients with more effective and safer treatment options.

Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd. was founded in 2016 by a group of high-level talents from both within and outside China, with the mission of "innovation driven by the needs of patients." The company is committed to the research, development, and clinical advancement of tumor cell immunotherapy. Recently, the company's clinical trial for TCR-T therapy loaded with anti-PD-1 antibodies for the treatment of advanced cervical cancer has been approved by the Center for Drug Evaluation of the National Medical Products Administration in China. This marks the first TCR-T clinical trial for cervical cancer to be approved in China and the world’s first approved HPV TCR-T clinical trial loaded with anti-PD-1 antibodies.

In recent years, the global cell therapy market has developed rapidly. The three giants in the CAR-T field, represented by Novartis, Wuxi Jumo, and Fosun Kite, have had multiple new drugs granted "Breakthrough Therapy" status by the U.S. FDA. The Chinese government has also given strong support to immune cell therapy, with various national ministries issuing numerous supportive policies. At the same time, "cell therapy and clinical transformation" has become a major topic in China's 13th Five-Year Plan for health security development. In the past two years, the efficacy of "CAR-T" immune cell therapy in hematological tumors has once again demonstrated that advanced-stage patients lack immune cells, and supplementing these patients with potent special-forces T-cells can help overcome refractory and recurrent tumors. Solid tumors account for more than 90% of all tumors; how to replicate the success of CAR-T in hematological tumors within solid tumors is a major trend in the industry. The four technology platforms of Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd. are designed to address the current four pain points in the industry:

TCR Screening Platform (TRUST): The first challenge in the development of cellular drugs for solid tumors is the identification of targets and the development of TCR/CAR. Among these, TCR screening represents the biggest bottleneck in TCR-T product development. Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd.'s TRUST platform is an AI-powered high-throughput single-cell screening platform that simultaneously conducts transcriptomic and functional analyses. It is a high-throughput screening platform that significantly reduces false positives, greatly shortening the time and cost of drug development.

CHECK-T PlatformThe second challenge faced by solid tumors is the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Using viral and cell modification technologies, Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd. has developed a new generation of ARM TCR-T products, which incorporate immune suppression molecule-modified components loaded into TCRT or CART. While targeting and killing tumor cells, these products can secrete anti-tumor suppressive elements within the tumor environment and locally neutralize the tumor microenvironment, significantly improving the treatment efficacy for solid tumors. This technology platform has been approved for clinical trials in China and is currently undergoing the U.S. IND application process.

TURBO-T Platform:The third challenge faced by solid tumors is tumor heterogeneity, which is particularly evident in patients with recurrent and refractory disease. Solid tumors are prone to mutation and evasion of T-cell recognition. Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd.'s TURBO-T platform develops T-cell therapies loaded with tumor microenvironment repair factors, targeting tumor cells while stimulating the body's immune response to counteract tumor heterogeneity. This product is currently in the clinical trial stage.

NK Platform: The universal product of Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd. comes from the optimized separation, cultivation, transfection, proliferation, and differentiation technology of umbilical cord blood NK cells, ensuring the high-efficiency transfection and expansion of NK cell drugs. The unique drug design fully leverages the advantages of NK cells as a universal and off-the-shelf therapeutic solution.

Mr. Su Zhenbo, Chairman of Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd.Statement: As a science-driven innovative biotechnology company, Tiankeya possesses top-tier innovation and R&D capabilities, along with high-standard production capacity and the experience and strength to complete first-in-class clinical studies. We are delighted that the company's product pipeline and the team's capabilities have been recognized and valued by well-known pharmaceutical companies and professional funds. Moving forward, we will collaborate with our investors to continuously provide breakthrough treatment solutions for patients, becoming an innovative enterprise rooted in China while serving the world—In China, for global.

Managing Director of AstraZeneca-CICC Healthcare Industry Fund,Mr. Chen Bing, Vice President of AstraZeneca China, Head of Strategic Partnerships and Business DevelopmentSaid: "The competition in the cell therapy track is extremely fierce, but the treatment of solid tumors remains an unsolved challenge. Centering on cell therapy, Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd. has built four unique platforms ranging from target development to cell production. We are highly anticipating advancements in cell therapy for the treatment of solid tumors and are willing to collaborate with innovative companies like Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd., which possess differentiated capabilities, to jointly overcome this global therapeutic challenge of cancer."

Mr. Shan Junbao, President of CICC Capital and Representative of the Executive General Partner of AstraZeneca-CICC Healthcare Industry FundRepresentation: The number of cancer patients worldwide continues to rise each year, with the vast majority being solid tumors. Applying cell therapy to solid tumors has the potential to address the bottleneck in cancer treatment, offering enormous market potential. We believe that with Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd.'s strong R&D capabilities and excellent management team, the company will further enhance its multidisciplinary professional R&D system and continue to grow into a world-class innovative pharmaceutical company.

CCB (Beijing) Investment FundRepresentation: As a national team in bank-affiliated equity investment, CCB Trust has always been committed to supporting the development of strategic emerging industries and firmly backing the high ground of technological transformation in its investment strategy. Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd. is one of the few cell therapy companies globally that gathers top expert teams, first-class industrial transformation talents, and industrial-scale production capabilities. Immunotherapy will undoubtedly become a significant force in cancer treatment in the foreseeable future, and breakthroughs in cell therapy for solid tumors are highly likely to be achieved by leading scientific teams like Tiankeya!

Huang Fanzi, Partner of Share InvestmentStated: As a leading enterprise in the research and development of novel immunotherapy drugs, Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd. possesses core R&D capabilities and technological advantages, as well as scaled production capacity and an excellent comprehensive management team, which is rare among innovative startups.

The breakthroughs achieved by Tiankeya are inseparable from its professional scientific team. Scientific founder Professor Qijing Li is an immunology professor at Duke University School of Medicine, who once studied under TCR pioneer Mark Davis and has extensive experience in tumor immune cell therapy. Another scientific founder, Professor Pin Wang, is an internationally renowned expert in virology and immune engineering, and his research in immune modulation and the engineering modification of targeted gene and drug delivery is world-leading. The Scientific Advisory Board includes a group of internationally acclaimed scientists such as Mark Davis (the discoverer of TCR) and Xiaofan Wang (a cancer biologist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences).

Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd. currently has more than 150 full-time employees worldwide, with a scientific team from Peking University, Stanford University, Duke University, Caltech, and Harvard University. The core management members come from multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Roche, and Novartis, possessing extensive industry experience and top-tier professional knowledge.

Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd. currently has R&D centers and GMP-level manufacturing facilities in both China and the United States, establishing a GMP facility of 4,600 square meters, including viral vector production lines and T-cell drug production lines. As a pioneer in the development of cell-based drugs for solid tumors, we are actively building a multidisciplinary professional R&D team and system for future development.Chairman of Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Su Zhenbo"Our goal is to develop a new generation of cell-based drugs that benefit patients in the field of solid tumors and become a growth platform for future industry leaders, driving the development of a large number of talents across various fields from drug development management to immunology, clinical development, data science, and high-end manufacturing. As Beijing Tiankeya Biotechnology Co., Ltd. grows, we hope more professionals dedicated to the era of cellular immunotherapy will join us to witness the progress and innovation of this epoch-making industry!"