PrimeLink Bio Secures Hundreds of Millions in RMB Financing to Advance Its Proprietary ADC Platform

VCBeat has learned that Puling Biopharmaceutical, an innovative ADC biotechnology company, has completed a financing round amounting to hundreds of millions of RMB. The round was led by Vertex Venture Management Co., Ltd., with participation from Fosun Pharma, Kaitai Capital, and other investors. Reportedly, the funds will be primarily used to establish and validate the company’s proprietary technology platform, as well as to advance the early preclinical development of its ADC drug candidates.

Puling Biopharmaceutical was established in July 2021. As an emerging ADC startup, Puling Biopharmaceutical garnered attention and recognition from numerous renowned investment institutions right from its inception. In 2022, despite the dual challenges of international lockdown restrictions and a capital market winter, Puling successfully established its own proprietary ADC technology platform, completed preliminary platform validation, and obtained key data. What is it about this young company’s DNA that enabled it to rapidly conquer the capital market and thrive against the current trend, even as innovation drugs generally face a downturn?

Dr. Yin, the founder, has nearly 20 years of experience in ADC drug development, including the design and R&D of payloads and linkers, as well as conjugation process development. He worked at Mersana Therapeutics for 15 years and holds dozens of international patents.

Dr. Yin was Mersana’s first employee and the core inventor of the company’s first- and second-generation linkers. He led his team through the entire cycle from early exploration to Investigational New Drug (IND) studies, establishing Mersana’s distinctive technology platform. Currently, Mersana’s technology platform has given rise to a robust product portfolio; its lead candidate has completed Phase III clinical trials and is preparing for submission of a Biologics License Application (BLA), while several other pipeline candidates are undergoing clinical studies or have formed strategic collaborations with international pharmaceutical companies.

Co-founder Dr. Yi was a colleague of Dr. Yin at Mersana and also brings nearly 15 years of experience in the development of antibody drugs and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). For these two scientists to launch a startup in China, they required guidance from professionals with deep insights into the Chinese market environment to bridge the information gap between scientist-entrepreneurs and the industry. Through repeated discussions with investors, founders Dr. Yin and Dr. Yi reached two clear conclusions regarding localization: first, Puling’s innovation and operations must be aligned with the establishment of a local team; second, capital planning must be tailored to match China’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Leveraging its strong learning agility and the appeal of its core technologies, Puling Biopharmaceutical quickly assembled a small yet elite R&D team. Talents with extensive experience in antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) development have joined successively, taking charge of biological and chemical disciplines respectively, thereby facilitating the construction of Puling Biopharmaceutical’s technology platform and the advancement of its product pipeline. Meanwhile, a team of senior consultants specializing in biology, chemical synthesis, quality, and compliance provides further support to the company’s growth. Currently, the company has over 20 R&D personnel, more than half of whom hold doctoral degrees.

Despite the impact of the pandemic on the company’s conceptualization, establishment, and financing, the founding team’s experience, source innovation capabilities, insights, and development philosophy have still garnered widespread recognition and support from brand investors. Following the financing round, the company rapidly completed the setup of its laboratory and initiated R&D activities, gradually shifting its focus to research and development.

Meanwhile, Puling Biopharmaceutical has introduced a world-leading bioconjugation technology from the United States, which holds significant synergistic value for its existing ADC technology platform. “This technology will simplify our future production of ADC drugs, saving considerable time and capital,” stated Dr. Yin. He added that Puling Biopharmaceutical aims to establish truly valuable differentiation in ADC linkers and conjugation technologies.

The first round of investment was quickly finalized because Puling Biopharmaceutical met the investment market's expectations for innovation.

Investors believe that the period from 2015 to 2020 marked China’s “Pharmaceutical Innovation 1.0” era, during which innovative products were largely characterized by a “borrowing” approach. Many product development efforts in this phase—including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors, and cell therapies—essentially followed mature, proven products already established in Europe and the United States. This strategy was fundamentally aimed at narrowing the gap with foreign counterparts, representing a form of “imported innovation.”

After 2020, China’s pharmaceutical industry entered the Innovation 2.0 era, with diminishing potential to unlock value from mature products, prompting a concerted industry shift toward technologies and products with platform attributes.

From the perspective of capital markets, platform attributes are gradually becoming one of the key criteria for investors. “First, there must be disruptive platform technology. In the early stages, a large product portfolio is not required, but there should be at least one product prototype to demonstrate its technical feasibility. Second, as a platform, it is expected to possess strong scalability, enabling continuous product development and consistently demonstrating its value to the market.”

The two founders concurred that platform innovation is the source of original innovation, and China’s pharmaceutical industry requires continuous propulsion by biotech companies with such capabilities. Puling Biopharmaceutical holds promise to become a leading ADC technology platform.

They observe that ADC drug development currently suffers from widespread inefficiency. Constrained by linker bottlenecks, most ADC candidates struggle to achieve compatibility among the target, antibody, and payload during development, which significantly limits their efficacy and reduces success rates. For instance, relying on a single technical platform to synthesize ADCs for every target may yield efficacy against one specific target but often fails to translate to others. In contrast, Puling Biopharmaceutical’s ADC platform employs a more flexible modular approach. “We are not a platform designed merely to produce a single ADC drug; rather, we are an ADC screening platform that identifies the most suitable ADC for each target as needed. This is what makes our platform advanced.”

Puling Biopharmaceutical operates with high efficiency; within one year of its establishment, it has achieved multiple milestones, including team building, technical platform development, and preliminary validation.Current key data are encouraging, providing the company with a clear direction for the future.Puling Biopharmaceutical is about to enter a new stage of development, which has become the direct impetus for its desire to introduce the next round of investment. Existing shareholders have expressed their continued support and participation in Puling Biopharmaceutical's new round of financing.

Investors tend to favor teams with high capital efficiency. Puling Biopharmaceutical currently maintains ample funding and has achieved key data milestones. Dr. Yi candidly shared with VCBeat, “Our core philosophy prioritizes technology. Therefore, we are extremely frugal in areas such as laboratory renovation and equipment procurement, while being generous only in technology and talent acquisition. We can say that we spend every penny of our investors’ capital with utmost diligence.”

Regarding the financing, Dr. Yin, founder of Puling Biopharmaceutical, stated: “After a year of hard work, Puling Biopharmaceutical has made significant progress: we have built a high-end technical team, achieved positive proof-of-concept (POC) data, filed patents for our ADC technology platform, and established collaborations with renowned companies both in China and abroad. Next year will be a pivotal year for Puling Biopharmaceutical’s development. We will fully advance our proprietary pipeline as well as co-developed pipelines with our partners. We are deeply grateful to our existing shareholders for their unwavering support, and we welcome new investors to join Puling Biopharmaceutical in this exciting endeavor.”

As the lead investor in this round, Yuan Jianwei, Partner at Vertex Ventures, stated, “Our investment in Puling Biopharmaceutical is a significant embodiment of Vertex’s vision to support innovative pharmaceutical technologies ‘in China for Global.’ Puling Biopharmaceutical will establish a highly scarce competitive differentiation through its novel linker design and conjugation technologies. Dr. Yin, the founder of Puling Biopharmaceutical, possesses extensive cross-cycle drug development experience and is a rare talent in the ADC field. Throughout Puling Biopharmaceutical’s journey from ‘0’ to ‘1,’ Vertex Ventures has been deeply involved in talent acquisition and technical collaborations. We are honored to grow alongside such an outstanding team as Puling Biopharmaceutical and to make our modest contribution to the development of innovative drugs in China.”

Li Jiaxin, project leader at Fosun Pharma, stated, “The diversity, iterative nature, and platform-based characteristics of ADC technology provide Chinese domestic startups with ample opportunities for differentiated competition in the international market, making it highly likely to become the next field where China achieves overtaking on a bend, following CAR-T therapies. When we first met Dr. Yin and Dr. Yi in 2019, we recognized their profound expertise in the ADC field. The team strength and technological accumulation of Puling Biopharmaceutical are highly competitive on a global scale, positioning the company to emerge as a leader among China’s new generation of ADC enterprises.”

Li Xianxian, Partner at Kaitai Capital, stated, “Congratulations to Puling Biopharmaceutical on completing this round of financing. The company’s founders, Yin Bo and Yi Bo, have many years of R&D experience in ADC drugs and have successfully advanced multiple drug candidates into clinical stages. Kaitai Capital is honored to have participated in Puling Biopharmaceutical’s initial funding round, and we look forward to their development of more differentiated ADC products on this new platform, benefiting a broader patient population.”

Puling Biopharmaceutical, established in 2021, is an innovative antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) biotechnology company dedicated to developing next-generation precise and flexible drug delivery systems. Its founding team hails from a publicly listed ADC company in the United States and possesses extensive experience in the end-to-end development of ADCs. The company aims to leverage cutting-edge international technological concepts and platforms to develop, screen, and industrialize next-generation antibody-drug conjugates, thereby benefiting cancer patients in China and around the world.

Vertex Ventures, established in 1988, is one of Asia’s earliest venture capital firms and a member of Temasek Holdings. Headquartered in Singapore, Vertex Ventures has branches in entrepreneurial hubs such as China, the United States, Israel, and India. Vertex Ventures China launched its early-stage venture capital business in China in 2008. With offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Singapore, it manages multiple USD and RMB funds, with assets under management exceeding RMB 15 billion. Vertex Ventures China has made extensive investments in the healthcare sector, including portfolio companies such as Chipscreen Biosciences [688321.SH], Harbour Biomed [02142.HK], Phoenix Healthcare Group [01515.HK], Recbio Technology [02179.HK], Edge Medical, Puling Biopharmaceutical, Yuanjian Youke, Ruijian Medical, Puji Biologics, BinHui Biotech, Chengfan Pharma, Huaxia Yingtai, Rigor Pharmaceuticals, Baoyuan Biopharma, and Jiunuo Medical.

Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd. (“Fosun Pharma”, stock codes: 600196.SH, 02196.HK), founded in 1994, is a China-based, innovation-driven global healthcare group. Its directly operated businesses encompass pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical diagnostics, and healthcare services, while its equity stake in Sinopharm Group extends its reach into the pharmaceutical distribution sector.

Cathay Capital was established in 2009 as an innovative capital management firm, focusing on investments in biopharmaceuticals and life sciences, artificial intelligence and digital technology, as well as data intelligence and tech-enabled consumer sectors. With a global perspective, forward-looking industry research, and an industrial ecosystem investment philosophy, Cathay Capital has invested in and laid out positions in more than one hundred biopharmaceutical and life science enterprises both domestically and internationally, initially forming an industrial collaborative ecosystem. It has developed an ecological investment portfolio across therapeutic areas including oncology, autoimmune diseases, metabolic disorders, anti-infectives, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, neuroscience, nephrology, ophthalmology, and dermatology, as well as in gene therapy and cell-based medicines, pharmaceutical manufacturing, innovative biotechnologies, and the broader health and wellness industry.