Cargene Biopharma Secures $18.6M Pre-A Financing to Advance Next-Generation Oligonucleotide Therapeutics

VCBeat learned第一时间 that Cargene Biopharma Inc. ("Cargene") announced today the completion of its $18.6 million Pre-A round of financing and officially came out of stealth mode. This round of financing was oversubscribed by multiple parties, led by Boyuan Capital, with participation from Huiding Investment, Legend Star, and other investors.

CARGENE BIOPHARMA was incubated by EVX Ventures, which is dedicated to creating and incubating biopharmaceutical enterprises globally. Targeting disruptive platform technologies and novel therapeutic approaches, EVX has successfully incubated multiple companies in China, the United States, and Singapore.

It is precisely because of this that CARGENE BIOPHARMA has been infused with the "genes" of a global perspective and technological innovation since its establishment, aligning seamlessly with the broader trend of "in China for global."

CARGENE BIOPHARMA's development model starts from China, leveraging the resources of different countries in terms of talent, technology, and production capacity to form the optimal combination in a short period of time. Its diverse team spanning Shanghai, Singapore, and Boston is the best example: Dr. Raj Pandey, Vice President of Chemistry, has over seven years of experience at Alnylam, known as the "West Point" of oligonucleotide drugs; Dr. Yann Chong Tan, Chief Scientific Officer, is a serial entrepreneur in the biopharmaceutical industry who successfully brought his biotech startup public on NASDAQ.

In terms of development goals, CARGENE BIOPHARMA relies on its strong advisory team from MIT in the United States, Imperial College London in the UK, and A*STAR in Singapore. It utilizes cutting-edge technologies to carry out research and development on new drug targets, benchmarks against foreign biotechnology companies, collaborates with multinational pharmaceutical enterprises, and focuses on the global market.

CARGENE BIOPHARMA's self-developed OSCAR algorithm seamlessly integrates with the SMoP pharmacophore design platform, rapidly advancing the development of efficient, specific, and stable novel oligonucleotide drugs targeting cardiovascular, fibrotic, and pulmonary diseases.

Scientific founder Professor Torsten Wuestefeld of the Genome Institute of Singapore has brought exclusive licensing of his regenerative technology platform to the company to design therapies that reverse liver fibrosis in NASH patients. Scientific advisor Professor Kausik Ray from Imperial College London, the leading clinical investigator of the recently approved oligonucleotide lipid-lowering drug Inclisiran, has formulated the development strategy for the company’s next-generation lipid-lowering drugs.

CARGENE BIOPHARMA is also developing technologies for targeted delivery of oligonucleotides to various organs and tissues, as well as novel nucleosides to enhance the efficacy of oligonucleotide drugs. The funds raised in this round will be used to advance the construction of R&D centers in both China and the United States, the IND application for the leading candidates in the company’s pipeline, and to accelerate the company's technological development.

CARGENE BIOPHARMA Chief Operating Officer Xuefeng Zhang commented:"Oligonucleotides have the potential to target any gene in the body and can be developed into long-acting formulations, making them particularly suitable for the treatment of chronic and genetic diseases. CARGENE BIOPHARMA, responding actively to the Healthy China Plan Outline, is striving to develop highly effective, low-cost drugs that are 'affordable for the common people' for a variety of serious and chronic diseases by fully mobilizing global resources. This aims to benefit the public and improve the lives of millions of people, including patients in China."

Founder of EVX Ventures, Lin Xiangqian, stated:"CARGENE BIOPHARMA fully embodies EVX's investment philosophy of redefining future therapies with new technologies. CARGENE BIOPHARMA’s unique chemical platform and novel biology platform address long-standing challenges in oligonucleotide drug development, such as delivery and stability. Moreover, CARGENE BIOPHARMA’s cross-border scientific ecosystem will help fully unlock the therapeutic potential of oligonucleotides, bringing lasting and meaningful benefits to patients worldwide."

Zhuang Qinggang, Executive Director of Boyuan Capital, stated:"Nucleic acid drugs are one of the key areas that Boyuan has focused on. Under the leadership of Mr. Lin, CARGENE BIOPHARMA has built a founding team consisting of serial entrepreneurs in the life sciences field and internationally renowned experts in nucleic acid chemistry. Leveraging the differentiated resource advantages of Boston, Singapore, and Shanghai, CARGENE BIOPHARMA has made significant progress in innovative targets and proprietary delivery systems, achieving highly promising preliminary data. We are very pleased to have the opportunity to lead CARGENE BIOPHARMA's first round of financing and look forward to working with the team to build a world-class oligonucleotide pharmaceutical company."

EVX Ventures is a global venture capital firm dedicated to creating, incubating, and investing in early-stage biotechnology companies. The company focuses on disruptive biopharmaceutical platform technologies and novel therapeutic approaches, investing in technological innovations worldwide to redefine future treatment methods.

BioTrack Capital, established in 2017, is a professional investment firm focused on investing in and incubating outstanding healthcare startups in the Chinese market. We are not only investors but also long-term partners of entrepreneurs. We consistently support the most exceptional healthcare innovators in building the next generation of leading enterprises in China's healthcare industry.

Huiding Investment gathers a team of senior partners from China's top investment institutions, and is built by a team with years of entrepreneurial operation experience, overseas technology localization experience in China, and industry resources. Huiding is committed to integrating global technological innovation, focusing on the upgrading of China's medical industry, and leveraging the clinical and industry resources accumulated by the team over the years to add value to the growth of enterprises. Huiding heavily focuses on high-growth and high-barrier fields such as immunity, regeneration, and precision medicine, and looks forward to pooling resources to strongly support Chinese companies in becoming industry leaders.

Legend Star is an early-stage investment institution focused on technology and healthcare. Since 2010, it has prioritized healthcare as a key investment area and has invested in nearly a hundred early-stage medical projects, yielding multiple IPOs.