Zhida Bio Secures Over RMB 100 Million in Series B+ Financing Led by CSCI Capital to Advance Protein Engineering Platforms

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) recently learned that Beijing Leto Laboratories Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Leto Laboratories”) has announced the completion of its Series B+ financing round, exceeding RMB 100 million.Exclusively invested by CSC Capital. The proceeds from this round of financing will be used for the research and development of multiple peptide and anti-tumor cytokine pipelines that have already achieved phased results.

Previously, the company had successively obtainedSherpa Investment、Mifang Capital、Qirong Venture Capital、HuaiGe Capitalinvestment from institutions such as , and completed a funding round led by in October 2020Yijing Capital、Qiaojing CapitalandChangfa Development Co-InvestmentSeries B financing. In addition, it also received in 2021Junshi BiosciencesRegarding the strategic investment and the consecutive recognition from both capital markets and industry partners, Leto Laboratories expressed its gratitude to the team for their creative contributions, to the existing shareholders for their strong support, and to the new shareholder, CSC Financial Capital, for its high level of trust and recognition.

Leto Laboratories, established in 2014, is an innovation- and R&D-driven biotechnology platform company. The company specializes in the engineering design and process development of recombinant proteins, focusing on the development of recombinant protein drugs such as peptides, cytokines, and enzymes. By leveraging its core technologies—protein-directed refolding and protein engineering—Leto Laboratories addresses critical manufacturing challenges and patent barriers across multiple stages of biopharmaceutical and protein product development. Built upon these foundational core technologies, Leto Laboratories aims to break the foreign monopoly over the protein drug engineering and manufacturing market and fill the gap in domestic core technologies within related fields.

Zhang Wei, founder of Leto Laboratories, holds a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Manchester, where he studied under Professor Kent Douglas, a renowned British expert in protein and molecular diagnostics and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Upon completing his doctoral studies, Zhang joined the MRC Centre for Cell and Molecular Biology at The Institute of Cancer Research, a leading oncology research center in the UK.”Serving as a Senior Researcher, he conducted mechanistic studies in cell biology. Following this tenure, Zhang Weixian remained in the United States to engage in small-molecule targeted drug development before returning to China to join Novo Nordisk, where he embarked on five years of frontline biomedical R&D.

“One of Leto Laboratories’ core technologies, “Targeted Protein Refolding Technology“It is a proprietary technology independently developed by Dr. Zhang Wei and his team through iterative exploration, which utilizes prokaryotic organisms to synthesize recombinant proteins and subsequently refolds them in vitro to restore their structure and function. This technology overcomes the yield and cost limitations associated with producing proteins using eukaryotic cells, making it particularly suitable for the design and development of small protein therapeutics such as peptides and cytokines.”

In contrast, proteins expressed in prokaryotic cells lose their activity due to the lack of proper folding structures. As a prokaryotic cell, Escherichia coli (E. coli) hosts the most common and stable expression system for exogenous proteins; however, the directly expressed proteins are inactive and thus unsuitable for application.Leto Laboratories can utilize targeted protein refolding technology to efficiently refold denatured solid proteins (inclusion bodies) massively expressed in Escherichia coli into highly active, properly folded proteins, thereby enabling the cost-effective development of high-value-added protein therapeutics., for example: well-known products such as semaglutide, teriparatide, interleukins, and growth factors can all be developed based on this technology.

Refolding of inclusion body-derived proteins is widely recognized as a complex and highly empirical task, requiring years of experience in protein process design and a profound understanding of protein properties to perform effectively. Moreover, each protein exhibits unique characteristics; therefore, the ability to successfully design refolding protocols and formulations for recombinant proteins has long been a key factor limiting the prokaryotic production of genetically engineered protein products, representing a major technical barrier in prokaryotic protein manufacturing processes.

In recent years, Leto Laboratories has leveraged its proprietary and robust protein refolding technology, empowered by advanced protein engineering design concepts, to innovatively develop a portfolio of recombinant protein drug candidates with independent intellectual property rights. The company has successfully established diversified collaboration models, including co-development and licensing agreements, with multiple established listed pharmaceutical companies and renowned industry players. These pipelines cover niche sectors such as oncology, orphan drugs, and pediatric medicines, directly addressing the urgent market and clinical needs for treatments for severe cancers and rare diseases, which are also key areas of government support. Furthermore, several pipelines independently advanced and incubated by Leto Laboratories have attracted the attention of numerous listed pharmaceutical enterprises.

As an investor in this round of financing,China SecuritiesIn this regard, it was also stated: "We are committed to identifying platform-based technological innovators in the field of innovative drugs. Leto Laboratories is a hardcore platform company with exceptional innovation capabilities in the fields of peptides and non-antibody proteins, having achieved significant breakthroughs in multiple key products within the cytokine sector."

CSC Capital Management Co., Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Securities Co., Ltd. Established on July 31, 2009, it was among the first batch of securities companies to pilot direct investment businesses. CSC Capital has invested in over 170 enterprises in the equity investment sector, with the cumulative scale of fund management filed with the Association exceeding RMB 50.5 billion.