EastMed Healthcare Group Secures RMB 30 Million in Pre-A Funding, Leading the Medical Device CDMO+CRO Sector

VCBeat has learned that Jiangsu Dongmai Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (“Dongmai Medical”) recently announced the completion of a RMB 30 million Pre-A financing round. This round was a single, private, targeted placement, with the investment coming from funds managed by Time Asset Management Co., Ltd. The proceeds will be primarily used for the construction of a CDMO+CRO industrial service sub-base in Wuxi, integrated information system operations, and multi-dimensional market promotion, thereby facilitating Dongmai Medical’s corporate transformation into a group structure featuring “one core and three wings.”

In 2020, Dongmai Medical Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (“Suzhou Dongmai”), which had been established for less than a year, secured an angel financing round of nearly RMB 10 million from the Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology of Southeast University and Suzhou Gaoxin Fengqiao Emerging Industry Investment Co., Ltd. Over the past two years, Dongmai Medical has built an industrial service cluster comprising a full-process regulatory affairs service platform, a R&D validation and remediation platform, and a contract manufacturing organization (CMO) platform for marketing authorization holders. This achievement has been driven by the successful operation of its subsidiary’s CDMO+CRO+Testing Center industrial service base in Suzhou and its CDMO industrial service base in Changsha.

Since 2019, Dongmai Medical has cumulatively provided various modular and customized professional services to hundreds of medical device enterprises, establishing a leading position in the industry as a CDMO+CRO provider. The company has upgraded from Suzhou Dongmai to the Dongmai Medical Group, creating a “one body, three wings” medical device CDMO industrial cluster spanning Suzhou, Changsha, and Wuxi. It has built six flexible medical device production lines with a total production area of nearly 10,000 square meters, garnering increased attention and recognition both within and outside the industry, and successfully secured this round of Pre-A financing.

“The Medical Device Registrant System” serves as an institutional guarantee for entrepreneurship and innovation through contracted manufacturing. As a leading and rare professional CDMO+CRO service provider in China with full lifecycle service capabilities for medical device products, Dongmai Medical Group has been deeply engaged in regulatory research on the “Medical Device Registrant System” since its establishment. It has developed a robust cooperation model between registrants and contracted manufacturers, refined through extensive practice, and pioneered multiple innovative CDMO services, including the “Three-Double Model.”

In 2021, Dongmai Medical achieved a breakthrough under the new Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) system, becoming the first cross-group CDMO platform in Jiangsu Province to obtain a Medical Device Production License. After more than a year of development and optimization, Dongmai Medical signed contracts for the contracted manufacturing of over 40 medical device products and successfully facilitated the translation and commercialization of 12 products. Among these, six clients continued to entrust production to Dongmai Medical after obtaining product registration certificates, entering mass production mode. Its client base spans scientific research and medical education institutions, startup teams, multinational corporations, and listed companies. In terms of both service quality and scale, Dongmai Medical has risen to the forefront of the CDMO sector in China.

Dongmai Medical has established the foundation for implementing group-oriented reform: completion of its core team and talent pipeline, confirmation of the feasibility to replicate and operate the “Suzhou Model,” implementation of an information-based management system for compliant operations, development of supply chains in specialized sectors, and the transition from compliant sample production to mass production to meet widespread demand. In 2022, Dongmai Medical unveiled a new strategic layout for its service structure, launching a group-operated model centered on “One Body, Three Wings, and Resource Integration.” This group-oriented approach will further consolidate its leading position, optimize resource allocation, and foster mutual support with hubs of medical device innovation, thereby truly building an accelerated service platform for entrepreneurship and innovation in the medical device industry.

Dr. Chen Tao, Chairman of Dongmai Medical, introduced: “In addition to our services, Dongmai Medical boasts two industry-leading innovations. First, we established the Dongmai Academy to cultivate talent for both the industry and our group. The Executive Dean of the Academy is Professor Jiang Haihong, Head of the Department of Medical Professions at Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, a distinguished expert appointed by the National Medical Products Administration’s Advanced Training Institute, and a key drafter of Shanghai’s Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) system. By pioneering an internal training model that integrates ‘theory with practice,’ we effectively address the industry-wide challenge of talent shortages. Second, Dongmai Medical makes a solemn commitment to ‘never hold any medical device registration certificates in any form,’ thereby maximizing the protection of our clients’ intellectual property rights and eliminating their concerns.”

Dr. Chen stated: "Dongmai is the only CDMO platform in Jiangsu Province that holds a production license but does not hold a registration certificate.", our clients' interests are our highest priority—now and always.

Regarding this round of financing, Dr. Chen Tao, Chairman of Dongmai Medical, stated: “The company will accelerate its group-oriented development and successfully replicate the Dongmai Medical model in multiple regions. Following our bases in Suzhou and Changsha, the Wuxi base will serve as the Group’s third self-operated service platform, enhancing our business scope with a focus on contract manufacturing in the IVD segment and expanding the registrant’s self-inspection platform. Construction is expected to be completed and operations launched by July 2022, ultimately forming a new tri-regional collaborative service matrix.”

This marks a new starting point for Dongmai’s strategic layout in the medical industry, with subsequent planning already underway. Leveraging its existing accumulation and reserves, Dongmai is deeply exploring and expanding its presence in the Yangtze River Delta’s medical device industrial chain. The company plans to establish an engineering translation center, a third-party testing and validation center, and new bases for mass production, creating new industrial landmarks and fostering specialized industrial clusters with distinctive features.

According to reports, Dongmai Medical has consistently adhered to the principle of “letting professionals handle professional matters,” fully leveraging its advantages in compliance, expertise, and practical execution within the CDMO+CRO service sector. Currently, by integrating and coordinating multi-party resources, it has established the “Medical-Engineering Translation Professional Committee,” a sub-branch under a provincial-level academic society. The committee is committed to building a new ecosystem for medical-engineering translation, strengthening exchanges, cooperation, and collaborative innovation in medical and engineering resources with various stakeholders, forming joint research efforts to address pain points in medical-engineering translation, facilitating the practical implementation of such translations, and promoting innovative development in the medical device industry.

Finally, Dr. Chen Tao stated: “Dongmai Medical is actively engaged in innovation and entrepreneurship within the medical device industry, striving to realize our vision of ‘Dongmai: The Aorta of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Medical Device Industry, enabling more and better medical devices to transform our lives.’ The rapid development of Dongmai Medical Group is attributable to our strategic foresight and layout, the concerted efforts and forward momentum of our team partners, the recognition by investors of our development strategy, business model, and team capabilities, and, most importantly, the market’s acceptance as well as the trust and support from both new and existing customers.”

Lin Jiechao, President of Time Asset ManagementStatement: Dongmai Medical represents a key strategic investment by Time Asset Management in the sector of medical technology transfer and commercialization. In recent years, Time Asset Management has been dedicated to exploring strategic layouts in the field of medical technology transfer, establishing a distinctive dual-engine model driven by venture capital (VC) investment and financial and data services for medical achievement commercialization, thereby becoming a long-term capital partner for entrepreneurs in this domain. On the service side of technology transfer, Time Asset Management was recognized in 2019 as one of the first five medical achievement commercialization bases in Jiangsu Province, awarded by the Jiangsu Provincial Medical Translation Center and the Clinical Hospital Association. By laying out foundational infrastructure for medical technology transfer, the company has formed a closed-loop industrial chain encompassing medical intellectual property screening, early-stage incubation and cultivation, external R&D (CRO), pilot-scale production (CDMO), and market launch and sales. On the project side of technology transfer, Time Asset Management has engaged in deep collaborations with hospitals, universities, and research institutes in Jiangsu Province and Shanghai, actively participating in investments in medical technology transfer projects and cultivating a portfolio of benchmark projects in this field.