Tailai Biosciences Secures Nearly RMB 100 Million Series A Funding to Advance Multi-Omics Liquid Biopsy for Cancer Screening

VCBeat learned at the earliest opportunity,ShenzhenTaiLai Biosciences (hereinafter referred to as “TaiLai Biosciences”) has completed its Series A financing round, raising nearly RMB 100 million.This round of financing was led by CDH Investments, with participation from Taiyu Investment and Weilai Capital. Probes Capital served as the financial advisor for this round. Reportedly, the funds raised will be primarily used for product R&D, market expansion, the expansion of medical laboratories, GMP manufacturing, and clinical trial applications for products.

Leveraging the National Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, and integrating data and clinical experience from major hospitals and health institutions both domestically and internationally, TaiLai Biosciences focuses on the oncology field. Based on its proprietary multi-omics technologies, the company provides innovative liquid biopsy products and services for critical diseases to a diverse range of clients.

As a high-tech biotechnology company, TaiLai Biosciences has established its own independent clinical laboratory (ICL) and possesses multiple product and technology pipelines in the field of biological omics, includingHigh-throughput pan-cancer screening technology products and multiple clinical auxiliary differential diagnosis technology products for individual cancer types.

Established two years ago, TaiLai Biosciences has successively completed three rounds of financing: angel, Pre-A, and Series A. Previous investors include several well-known investment firms such as Heli Investment (angel round), Ruifu Medical Health Fund, Taiyu Investment, and Kunpeng Medical Angel Fund.

Metabolomics-Based High-Throughput Pan-Cancer Screening Product—Meta-Pan^®(An An Pan^®）, utilizing TaiLai Biosciences’ independently developed Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) instrument and 3D nanomaterial matrices, through the interdisciplinary application of multi-omics, clinical medicine, artificial intelligence algorithms, materials science, and engineering, it is possible toLung cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, colorectal cancer, breast14 Types of Tumors with High Incidence in China, Including Adenocarcinoma and Prostate Cancer(12 types for males and 13 types for females) to provide one-on-one early risk warning. Among these, findings based on research cohorts for liver cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, and lung cancer have been presented at international academic conferences including ESMO, CSCO, ASCO, SGO, and WCLC.

Liu Yaokun, CEO of TaiLai BiosciencesTell VCBeat, An An Pan^®Combining the advantages of low cost and high precision, it has currently obtained a Class I medical device registration certificate. Based on AnAnPan^®Regarding the high-throughput pan-cancer screening technology employed, TaiLai Biosciences has collaborated with dozens of Grade A tertiary hospitals and national-level research institutions, including Zhongshan Hospital Fudan University, Shanghai Changhai Hospital (First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University), Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, National Cancer Center/Cancer Hospital Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, West China Hospital Sichuan University, and the National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, completing clinical sample research and validation on over 20,000 cases.

Clinical testing of over 20,000 samples indicates that,An An Pan^®The average screening sensitivity for the tested tumors was 92%, with a specificity of 98%.significantly higher than traditional methods such as tumor markers commonly used in China’s current general cancer screening market, providing auxiliary evidence and scientific reference for further diagnosis.

An An Pan, through third-party medical laboratories established in Chengdu and other regions^®Providing pan-cancer general screening services with terminal pricing in the range of RMB 1,000 to health examination institutions, insurance companies, local hospitals, local public institutions, and individual users across multiple provinces in China. As of December 2020,TaiLai Biosciences has partnered with dozens of medical examination centers across China to complete pan-cancer screening tests on tens of thousands of real-world health checkup participants.

In terms of clinical diagnostic products for single cancer types, TaiLai Biosciences’ product development is primarily based on the multi-omics integration of epigenomics, metabolomics, proteomics, genomics, and radiomics.Addressing clinical needs in areas such as auxiliary tumor diagnosis, differential diagnosis, medication guidance for complex diseases, and cancer recurrence monitoring, we have established multiple product pipelines in the fields of lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, gastric cancer, and glioma.

Such products are characterized by being non-invasive, dynamic, highly accessible, and capable of real-time monitoring, earning consistent recognition from numerous collaborating clinicians and several leading pharmaceutical companies. It is reported that TaiLai Biosciences’ R&D team has established close collaborations with multiple Grade A tertiary hospitals, including West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, Mengchao Hepatobiliary Hospital, and the Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, as well as with numerous domestic and international oncology pharmaceutical enterprises. Preliminary research findings have been published in prestigious journals such as Nature Medicine, Cell Research, Clinical Epigenetics, and ESMO Open.

According to the clinical R&D team at TaiLai Biosciences,TaiLai Biosciences will conduct nationwide, multicenter, large-scale prospective cohort studies for several of its clinical pipelines next year.

According to the China Cancer Report released by the National Cancer Center, the annual number of new malignant cancer cases in China exceeds 3.929 million, with over 2.338 million deaths, maintaining respective growth rates of 3.9% and 2.5% over the past decade. A large number of cancer patients are asymptomatic in the early stages of the disease, with diagnoses predominantly occurring at the middle to late stages, resulting in a five-year survival rate of only approximately 38%.

Improving the 5-year survival rate for cancer patients hinges on guiding the public toward early cancer screening. Liu Yaokun stated that traditional “gold standard” methods currently used in clinical practice for cancer diagnosis, such as gastroscopy/colonoscopy, CT, and MRI, suffer from drawbacks including being time-consuming, cumbersome, highly invasive, and costly. As a result, compliance among the general population at the primary care level in China is generally low.

Although traditional blood-based tumor marker tests are convenient, they suffer from low accuracy, high rates of missed detections, and elevated false-positive and false-negative results, rendering them unsuitable for early cancer screening. There is an urgent market need for innovative “non-invasive, population-level pan-cancer screening products.”

With the accelerating pace of life in recent years, the incidence of cancer has shown a trend toward affecting younger populations. Healthy individuals under the age of 40 without a family history of genetic predisposition—who are not yet clinically classified as “candidates recommended for ‘gold standard’ testing”—also require “convenient and traceable pan-cancer screening products.”

For the large-scale population screening market, TaiLai Biosciences primarily collaborates with professional institutions such as major insurance companies, health checkup centers, specialized medical laboratories, and new chain clinics, aiming to help their tested users detect diseases early and receive timely treatment.

“Through these market-oriented initiatives, TaiLai Biosciences is able to acquire a substantially larger volume of real-world data—far exceeding that of any single institution—and establish a human molecular database of higher standards.”According to Dr. Zhong Sheng, Vice President of TaiLai Biosciences, real-world data can more authentically, objectively, and accurately reflect the specific efficacy of products, playing a crucial role in the subsequent updates and iterative upgrades of the company’s products, as well as in clinical trial applications and registration submissions.This is also a key focus area for TaiLai Biosciences' next-phase strategic layout.

Dr. Zhong Sheng introduced to VCBeat that TaiLai Biosciences was co-founded by a cutting-edge scientific team comprising top experts in the field, forming a composite elite team with extensive experience in the medical industry.

Among them, Liu Yaokun, CEO of TaiLai Biosciences, brings 40 years of experience in the medical, pharmaceutical, and health industries. He has previously held senior executive positions, including General Manager of Greater China and President, at renowned Fortune 500 multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Merck & Co., Schering-Plough, and Baxter International. The majority of TaiLai Biosciences’ scientific and clinical R&D team members hold doctoral degrees from prestigious universities and institutions both in China and abroad, including Stanford University, Wuhan University, Sichuan University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, Xiamen University, and the University of California, Berkeley. The team also includes several well-known experts in their respective fields.

As a biotechnology start-up, TaiLai Biosciences not only enjoys distinct technological advantages but also benefits from a management team with extensive experience in healthcare industry operations. This leadership has injected strong momentum into the company’s rapid growth and development, enabling continuous technological iteration and updates while maintaining efficient and orderly internal management, and actively integrating external resources to advance steadily.

Regarding future development plans, Dr. Zhong Sheng stated,In the future, TaiLai Biosciences will accelerate its clinical regulatory submissions, launching its first time-of-flight mass spectrometer for detecting metabolic small molecules, with expectations to obtain the Class II medical device registration certificate for this instrument by late 2021 or early 2022.

Meanwhile,TaiLai Biosciences will also prioritize its layout in single-cancer detection.Utilizing multi-omics technologies for the differential diagnosis of cirrhosis progressing to early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatitis transforming into pancreatic cancer, and the benign versus malignant nature of pulmonary nodules.Dr. Zhong Sheng stated that clinical needs in this field remain far from being met, and differential screening based on multi-omics technologies represents a new entry point; TaiLai Biosciences still has a long and arduous journey ahead.

Wang Lin, Founding Partner of CDH Investments, stated, “In recent years, the application of multi-omics technologies in the field of tumor liquid biopsy has become increasingly mature. Currently, most cancer early screening methods on the market are still based on genomics and primarily focus on single cancer types. TaiLai Biosciences has innovatively applied metabolomics technology to the field of cancer early screening, holding promise for achieving low-cost pan-cancer early screening. The company boasts a top-tier team combining both scientific research and industrial capabilities, with dual barriers consisting of independently developed proprietary technologies and tens of thousands of high-quality clinical cases. We are pleased to see that the company’s pipeline has gained recognition and support from numerous renowned clinical experts and hospitals. We look forward to TaiLai Biosciences’ continued efforts to address many challenges across the entire cancer care continuum—from screening to auxiliary differential diagnosis, and further to medication guidance and recurrence monitoring—thereby becoming a leading global innovative force in the field of multi-omics liquid biopsy.”

Ji Tianrong, founder of Taiyu Investment, stated, “China’s cancer incidence and mortality rates remain high, and there is still a significant gap in five-year cancer survival rates compared with developed countries. Existing liquid biopsy products on the market are far from meeting the demands of China’s trillion-yuan-scale market for severe disease health screening and professional clinical in vitro diagnostics. We look forward to TaiLai Biosciences serving more users through technological innovation, truly realizing the vision of ‘turning cancer into a chronic disease.’”

Zhao Yang, Partner at Weilai Capital, stated: “China is a ‘hard-hit area’ globally for high cancer incidence and mortality rates. It is projected that by 2030, the number of new cancer patients in China will reach 5.7 million, ranking first worldwide in absolute increase and third in growth rate. In terms of cancer mortality, the five-year survival rate for newly diagnosed cancer patients in China is only 38%, lower than the global average of 47%, ranking second to last. Moreover, the early diagnosis rate is significantly lower than that of countries such as the United States and Japan. Reducing mortality and healthcare costs should rely more heavily on early diagnosis, as the five-year survival rate for early-stage diagnoses is on average 64% higher than for late-stage diagnoses. Given China’s vast population undergoing health screenings and its income levels, ‘meaningful’ and ‘implementable’ tumor early screening solutions must simultaneously meet the characteristics of ‘high specificity, high sensitivity, high testing throughput, and low cost,’ which are goals difficult to achieve with traditional technical routes. TaiLai Biosciences’ innovative ‘data + algorithm’ solution effectively meets these technical requirements and has made significant progress in commercial implementation. Leveraging profound understanding and application of data, algorithms, and materials science, the TaiLai Biosciences team has enabled China’s tumor early screening technology to break through overseas technological monopolies and enter the world’s forefront for the first time. Over the past two years, we have witnessed the rapid rise of innovative medical technology companies driven by ‘data + algorithms,’ represented by TaiLai Biosciences. We are honored to participate in this round of investment in TaiLai Biosciences, and we are committed to continuing our support for TaiLai Biosciences in applying its breakthrough technologies and products to the global market, thereby reducing mortality rates and healthcare costs for cancer patients worldwide.”