MagicRNA Secures Tens of Millions in Angel Funding to Advance Nucleic Acid Delivery and RNA Therapeutics

VCBeat learned at the earliest opportunity that, recently,Shenzhen Hongxin Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (“Hongxin Biotech”), a company focused on nucleic acid drug delivery and RNA therapeutics R&D, announced the completion of an angel-round financing in the tens of millions of yuan.This round of financing constitutes a strategic equity investment by Zhejiang Tianyu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (a company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, stock code: 300702) in Hongxin Biologics.

Hongxin Biologics is an innovative RNA therapeutics company founded in 2021 and selected as part of the seventh cohort to settle in the Shenzhen Engineering Biology Industry Innovation Center. Specializing in nucleic acid drug delivery, the company possesses China’s largest library of ionizable amino lipids with fully independent intellectual property rights. The delivery systems developed by Hongxin Biologics have achieved domestic leadership in in vivo activity and scalability (120 mL/min). The company has filed multiple invention patent applications and has been granted two invention patents. Its R&D center and GMP pilot-scale production base, covering a total area of 2,500 square meters, are scheduled to commence operations in September 2022.

Hongxin Bio has assembled a team of top-tier industry talent, including five PhDs (and postdoctoral fellows) and 16 master’s degree holders. The company has established five core platforms: the Bioinformatics Center, the mRNA Synthesis and Process Development Center, the LNP Formulation Process Center, the Non-Clinical Drug Evaluation Center, and the IND Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Research Center. Guided by clinical needs, Hongxin Bio is dedicated to leveraging RNA technology to address diseases with no existing therapeutic options, striving to become an outstanding pharmaceutical enterprise with dual cores in innovative R&D and industrial translation. Currently, multiple mRNA drug candidates from Hongxin Bio are in the preclinical research stage.

Zhejiang Tianyu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Tianyu Shares”) stated that,Hongxin Biologics is a rare domestic company in China that holds patents for novel amino lipid structures.RNAAs an innovative company, the investment in Hongxin Biologics was driven by confidence in the founder’s years of accumulated expertise in nucleic acid drug delivery, as well as their ownership of multiple patents for compound libraries with significant commercial value, while simultaneouslymRNAA highly skilled team has also been established for sequence optimization and in vitro synthesis. Following Tianyu Shares’ investment in Hongxin Bio, the two parties will engage in deep collaboration in the process development and industrialization of amino lipids, as well as the industrialization of delivery systems. Leveraging its advantages in chemical synthesis manufacturing processes and market resources, Tianyu Shares will continue to empower Hongxin Bio and drive its rapid growth.

Shenzhen Hongxin Biotechnology Co., Ltd. stated that,We extend our sincere gratitude to Tianyu Shares for their trust and support in Hongxin Biotech. The collaboration between Hongxin Biotech and Tianyu Shares exhibits strong complementarity, and this partnership will accelerate Hongxin Biotech’sbest-in-classThe scaled-up production of ionizable amino lipids and in-depth pharmacological and pharmacokinetic evaluations further solidify Hongxin Biologics’ domestic leadership in nucleic acid drug delivery.

Meanwhile, Tianyu Pharma’s investment will accelerate the construction of Hongxin Bio’s 2,500-square-meter R&D center and GMP manufacturing facility in Guangming District, Shenzhen, laying a solid foundation for investigator-initiated trials (IITs) scheduled to commence in the second half of 2022 and the investigational new drug (IND) application for clinical registration in the first half of 2023.

Zhejiang Tianyu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. was established in 2003, with its headquarters located in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province. The company has a registered capital of over RMB 348 million, owns 10 wholly-owned subsidiaries, and currently employs more than 4,800 people. Tianyu Pharma is a joint-stock pharmaceutical enterprise specializing in the research and development, manufacturing, and sales of pharmaceutical intermediates, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), and finished dosage forms. It was successfully listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on September 19, 2017 (Stock Code: 300702).The company is recognized as a National High-Tech Enterprise, a Zhejiang Provincial Pilot Innovative Enterprise, and a Zhejiang Provincial Patent Demonstration Enterprise. It has established a Provincial Enterprise Research Institute, a Provincial High-Tech Enterprise R&D Center, a Provincial Innovation Platform, a Provincial Enterprise Technology Center, and a Provincial Postdoctoral Research Station.The company’s main products cover APIs and intermediates for antihypertensive, antidiabetic, anticoagulant, and anti-asthmatic medications. As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of cardiovascular APIs, Tianyu Pharma is among the largest and most comprehensive global producers of sartan-class antihypertensive drug APIs and intermediates. Its products are widely sold in both domestic and international markets.

Shenzhen Engineering Biology Industry Innovation Center (hereinafter referred to as the “Innovation Center”) is an innovation and entrepreneurship platform jointly established by the Guangming District Government and the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with the Institute of Synthetic Biology of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology taking the lead in its construction. The center has a total floor area of 12,000 square meters.

The Innovation Center has adopted China’s first “Upstairs-Downstairs Integrated Innovation and Entrepreneurship Complex” model, with upstream industrial application research and downstream enterprise incubation management as its core components. Application research leverages major scientific infrastructure and the Synthetic Biology Institute to deliver scientific achievements and facilitate technical collaborations. Incubation management connects with innovation sources while attracting startups with core competitiveness from across society, providing a high-quality entrepreneurial environment, open and shared office spaces, and advanced experimental technology platforms to enable “plug-and-play” occupancy. By leveraging top-tier scientific resources such as Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology, the Institute of Synthetic Biology at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, and major scientific facilities, the Center accelerates technological development and iteration. This effectively addresses bottlenecks faced by startups due to lack of advanced experimental equipment and their need for professional technical collaboration, significantly shortening the cycle from original innovation to industrial commercialization. Furthermore, empowered by China’s first special policy for synthetic biology, the Center helps alleviate initial financial pressures on enterprises and supports their high-quality development.

The Innovation Center has innovatively broken through the time barriers of industrial incubation from “0 to 1, and then to 10,” establishing a full-chain enterprise cultivation model spanning “scientific research–translation–industrialization,” thereby strengthening a key link in Shenzhen’s innovation ecosystem for synthetic biology (also known as engineering biology). This model has been included by the National Development and Reform Commission among the 47 measures promoting Shenzhen’s experience.