Zhongbo Ruikang Completes Tens of Millions RMB Angel Financing to Break Foreign Monopoly in Upstream Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing Tools

VCBeat has learned that Zhongbo Ruikang recently announced the completion of its tens-of-millions-yuan angel financing round, exclusively invested by Sinovation Ventures.

Zhongbo Ruikang focuses on the field of cell and gene therapy, committed to developing comprehensive solutions for domestically produced cell preparation tools to break the monopoly of imported products. The company has currently completed product R&D and established a production base in Shanghai. The funds from this round of financing will be used for factory construction, facilitating the company's transition from R&D to production.

Wei Dongbing, the company’s founder, stated, “As cell therapy drugs reach the critical juncture of clinical trial applications and regulatory approvals, the entire industry is experiencing a period of explosive growth. R&D efficiency and the pace of clinical advancement have become focal points of competition, with cell therapy companies eager to rapidly complete process development and clinical trials. Timely supply of materials, selection of relevant tool modules, and seamless integration of systems are core to whether cell therapy companies can ensure R&D efficiency and accelerate clinical progress. In this context, companies capable of providing comprehensive high-performance cell manufacturing tool solutions, such as Zhongbo Ruikang, are naturally highly favored by both capital markets and the industry.”

Wu Kai, Medical Partner at Sinovation Ventures, stated, “Since 2016, the global cell and gene therapy market has experienced rapid growth, with its size increasing fortyfold over five years. China ranks second globally in the number of cell and gene therapy clinical trials conducted. Effectively controlling production costs will significantly impact the large-scale promotion and application of cell and gene therapy drugs. Zhongbo Ruikang develops and manufactures a full suite of equipment, consumables, and liquids for cell preparation, which are widely used in fields such as cell therapy, cell and virus production, and cell storage. The company is committed to providing high-quality products comparable to those of international giants and serving customers through one-stop solutions. Wei Dongbing, the company’s founder, served as the Head of Miltenyi Biotec’s China region for eight years, witnessing the emergence, transition, and vigorous development of China’s cell and gene therapy industry, thereby accumulating profound expertise and insights. We believe that under the leadership of its founder, Zhongbo Ruikang will become a star enterprise in the upstream sector of China’s cell and gene therapy industry.”

In recent years, cell and gene therapies have achieved a series of breakthroughs in oncology. With the U.S. FDA’s approval of two CAR-T drugs in 2017, cell therapy has become a prominent field. Currently, capital for the development of domestically produced cell-based drugs is heavily concentrated in China, with numerous companies active in this space. The Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) has accepted 70 Investigational New Drug (IND) applications for innovative cell therapies, and more than 200 cell therapy companies are queued for consultations with the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC) and the CDE.

The rapid development in the field of cell and gene therapies has also driven an explosive growth in the upstream market for cell preparation tools.

Currently, companies primarily involved in blood products, umbilical cord blood, or immunology are positioning themselves in the cell preparation tools sector, with GE and Miltenyi Biotec being the key players. China’s cell preparation tools market has long been monopolized by imported brands, resulting in three major issues: high costs, long lead times, and poor service. These challenges pose significant obstacles to the rapid development of domestic cell and gene therapy companies.

Most domestic cell therapy companies in China adopt equipment and reagents from GE and Miltenyi Biotec, with lead times as long as 8–18 months and persistently high prices; consumables alone cost tens of thousands of yuan, driving up the overall cost of cell therapies. In addition, foreign brands such as GE and Miltenyi Biotec have long served the international market, and their service teams and technical capabilities are insufficient to meet the needs of China’s rapidly growing cell and gene therapy industry, resulting in service gaps, slow technical support response, and high costs for warranty and maintenance services.

Most importantly, cell preparation demands a high degree of personalization. Given that clinical practices and regulations in China differ from those abroad, overseas products are difficult to technically adapt to local conditions, and fully imported equipment fails to meet customers’ personalized needs. Consequently, domestic enterprises have an increasingly strong demand for Chinese-made cell preparation tools and services.

Zhongboruikang is committed to achieving the localization of cell preparation tools. Its core team has accumulated extensive experience in the field of cell preparation tools and possesses a profound understanding of comprehensive solutions for cell and gene therapy. Currently, the company has established a dedicated team specializing in technological research, product design, systematic production, market promotion, and professional services for cell preparation tools.

Wei Dongbing, founder of Zhongbo Ruikang, spent 13 years working extensively at a renowned Fortune 500 medical device company before assuming the role of Head of Miltenyi Biotec’s China region. He has extensive experience in equipment and consumables, particularly in the R&D and industrialization of multi-product, multidisciplinary consumables. Wei Dongbing stated, “During my more than ten years of work in the field of cell biology, I have witnessed the translation of advanced therapies such as cell therapy from research to clinical practice, and observed the explosive growth of the global precision medicine and cell therapy industries. This has profoundly shaped my understanding of the global and Chinese cell therapy markets.”

Drawing on extensive technical expertise accumulated over years in immunology enterprises, medical device companies, and cell therapy supply firms, Wei Dongbing founded Zhongbo Ruikang several years ago. This year, the company was restructured as “Zhongbo Ruikang (Beijing) Biomedical Technology Co., Ltd.” and established a standalone production facility in Shanghai Lingang. The company aims to leverage its capabilities to address critical bottlenecks in cell preparation tools and achieve domestic substitution with Chinese-made alternatives.

Zhongbo Ruikang is committed to realizing the industrialization of cell manufacturing with “continuous closed-system processing, single-use disposables, consistency, automation, scalability, and medical device compliance,” thereby promoting domestic substitution. Currently, the company has launched a comprehensive family of cell manufacturing products, covering equipment, consumables, and reagents. These include automated cell separation, automated cell culture, automated cell washing, automated programmed aliquoting of cell products, automated freeze-thaw and recovery of cell products, a series of GMP-grade cell management consumables, and reagents related to cell preparation.

Wei Dongbing believes that the ideal tool for cell preparation and production should replace integrated systems with a combination of basic functional module units and specialized, differentiated assembly. Since cell therapy varies by individual and by sample, integrated tools and processes struggle to meet these diverse requirements. Zhongbo Ruikang assists customers in creating closed, continuous assemblies of basic modules according to their specific needs, thereby constructing personalized cell drug preparation pipelines tailored to product-specific processes and meeting the diversified demands of cell preparation.

Continuous Closed Manufacturing Process Tools Are the Core of Cell Preparation. Wei Dongbing stated, “Cells possess immunological characteristics, and process design must adhere to these properties. For instance, cells begin to deteriorate after just 15 minutes of exposure to air. The Draft for Comments emphasizes that minimizing exposure time is critical to ensuring the efficacy of cell-based therapies and represents a key evaluation criterion for both the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) and the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC).” Leveraging basic modular units and a family of standardized products, Zhongbo Ruikang has implemented a fully closed bag-to-bag system. This approach avoids and minimizes cell exposure during preparation, reduces cell loss, and simultaneously lowers requirements for GMP facility classification and energy consumption.

In addition to domestically produced cell preparation tools, differentiated services also constitute a core competitive advantage for the company. The cell and gene therapy service team established by Zhongbo Ruikang is well-versed in the key challenges and pain points associated with transitioning cell preparation processes from manual to automated operations, as well as the principles governing stability requirements for cell-based drug manufacturing processes. This expertise enables the team to efficiently assist clients in achieving seamless module integration and closed-system connectivity, thereby meeting the production requirements for cell-based therapies.

Currently, Zhongbo Ruikang has essentially completed the R&D of products related to cell preparation tools, accumulated a strong reputation among customers, and established a production base in Shanghai that complies with ISO and cGMP standards. Targeting the hospital application market with substantial demand, the company has diversified its portfolio of hospital-based cell therapy project products and is poised to become the first cell preparation tool enterprise to obtain medical device registration certificates.

Wei Dongbing stated, “Moving forward, Zhongbo Ruikang will leverage its family of cell preparation tools to enhance product and service value-added offerings, thereby better serving Chinese cell therapy and gene therapy companies, as well as hospitals and other clients. Our goal is not only to achieve domestic substitution but also to expand internationally, establishing ourselves as a global leader in cell preparation tools.”

Sinovation Ventures, founded by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee in September 2009, is a leading venture capital and incubation firm in China. It focuses on artificial intelligence and deep tech, robotics and automation, chips and semiconductors, enterprise software, healthcare, and other sectors. Continuously exploring and innovating, Sinovation Ventures is committed to building a comprehensive ecosystem investment service platform that integrates entrepreneurial support, funding, and post-investment services.