Lilly Asia Ventures, a corporate venturing vehicle for pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, co-led a $100m funding round for China-based antibody drug developer RemeGen yesterday, DealStreetAsia reported.
The round was co-led by healthcare investment fund Lake Bleu Capital and included Vivo Capital, Janchor Partners, Hudson Bay Capital, OrbiMed, Loyal Valley Capital, Guoxin Guoxin Dongwu Overseas Fund and unnamed existing investors.
RemeGen is developing therapies based on antibody and fusion proteins, antibody-drug conjugates and bifunctional antibodies in order to fight diseases with high unmet needs, in areas such as oncology, ophthalmology and autoimmune diseases.
The company was founded in 2008 by pharmaceutical firm Rongchang and founding chief executive Jianmin Fang. The proceeds from the round have been earmarked for research and development.
Much of that R&D capital will go to RemeGen’s lead drug candidate, RC18, which is in phase 3 clinical trials for rheumatoid arthritis and an autoimmune disease known as neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder.
A second product candidate, RC48, has completed phase 2 trials for gastric, breast and urothelial cancer. The company maintains laboratories in the cities of Beijing and Shanghai as well as the US state of California.
Chen Fei, managing partner for Lilly Asia Ventures, said: “For the past 12 years, RemeGen has been conducting pioneering research work to tackle the unmet medical needs for patients with autoimmune diseases and malignant tumours. The company has developed a series of featured novel biologics.”
