JW Therapeutics, a China-based biopharmaceutical developer formed by biopharmaceutical companies Juno Therapeutics and WuXi AppTec, closed a $100m series B round on Tuesday featuring both among the investors.
The round was co-led by CPE, a subsidiary of state-owned holding company Citic, and financial services firm Mirae Asset, and included CR-CP Life Science Fund, a joint venture backed by conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group and state-owned group China Resources.
Oriza Holdings, Loyal Valley Capital, Temasek, Sequoia Capital China and Arch Venture Partners filled out the round, which the company said increased its overall funding to more than $200m.
JW Therapeutics is working on cellular immunotherapies to treat cancer and has earmarked part of the series B cash for advancement of its lead candidate, JWCAR029, which is in phase 2 clinical trials. Additional proceeds will support the rest of its pipeline and bolster its commercialisation resources.
The company was formed in 2016 by WuXi AppTec and Juno, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Bristol-Myers Squibb since the latter’s acquisition of Juno parent company Celgene in November 2019,
The co-founders joined Temasek, Sequoia China, Oriza Holdings’ Oriza Seed Capital fund, YuanMing Capital, Yipu Capital and Avict Global Holdings to provide $90m in series A funding for JW Therapeutics in early 2018.
James Li, JW Therapeutics’ co-founder and chief executive, said: “We are very pleased to welcome our new investors and, by working together, we hope to accelerate our product development and serve Chinese patients.”
