​Virogin Biotech Closes $62M Series C Funding Round

According to PEdaily.cn, Virogin Biotech, a Vancouver-based Chinese biotechnology company, has raised $62 million in the Series C round co-led by CDH Investments and CMG-SDIC Fund (a joint fund of SDIC Fund Management and China Merchants Capital), with participation from Korea Investment Partners (KIP), Panlin Capital, Linden Asset, Xiaoxi Holdings, and Peking University Alumni (Canada).BMD Capital served as the financial advisor.

Proceeds from the latest round will be used for clinical trials of new drugs.

Virogin Biotech was founded in 2015, with a vision to be a global, best-in-class oncolytic virus company that creates impactful drugs for patients of the highest medical need. By synergistic immune regulatory factors and exploring different drug delivery routes, the company hopes to achieve effective and long-lasting anti-tumor immunity. It has more than 50 employees and R&D facilities in Vancouver, Canada and Shanghai, China.

VG161, the flagship drug candidate of Virogin Biotech, has obtained approval from the regulatory authorities in Australia for phase I clinical trial in humans. The phase I clinical trial of VG161 in China has been approved and will be officially launched this year. 

In addition, Virogin Biotech has many other candidates in its existing pipeline, including the VG200 series with more efficiency and safety, VG300 expressing new combinations of immune regulatory factors. It is also exploring different drug delivery routes to develop new drugs. Among them, the VG200 series is in the pre-clinical research stage.

Established in 2002, CDH is one of the leading alternative investment fund managers focused on China today with over US$19 billion of assets under management, as of February 31, 2020. From its roots in private equity, CDH has expanded to become a diversified alternative asset management platform covering: Private Equity, Real Assets, Venture and Growth Capital, Mezzanine & Credit, Public Equities and Wealth Management.

CMG-SDIC Fund is a private equity firm jointly led and established by SDIC Fund and China Merchants Capital. The company is responsible for the operation and management of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei industrial coordinated development fund. The first phase of the fund has a scale of 10 billion yuan.