Ascentage Pharma, a China-based oncology therapeutics development spinout of biopharmaceutical company Ascenta Therapeutics, closed its series B round at RMB500m ($72m) yesterday.
The round was led by Future Industry Investment Fund, a private equity branch of the Chinese state-owned State Development & Investment Corporation, and included Shiyu Capital, Hidragon Capital, Founder Kip Capital, YuanMing Capital, Oriza Venture Fund and Efung Capital.
Ascentage is developing small-molecule drugs to treat cancer, hepatitis B and age-related diseases, and has six candidates in phase 1 or 2 trials in the US, China and Australia.
The series B funding will be used to advance Ascentage’s small-molecule pipeline into clinical development. It has also formed a partnership with anti-aging drug developer Unity Biotechnology to work on therapies for diseases related to aging.
The round follows a $15.5m round in August 2015 that was co-led by Oriza Capital, which like Oriza Venture Fund is part of investment holding company Suzhou Oriza Holdings, and YuanMing Capital. Biotechnology company 3SBio had invested $3m in Ascentage six months earlier.
Dajun Yang, Ascentage’s co-founder, chairman and CEO, said: “The capital raised will be invaluable in enabling us to progress the clinical development of our pipeline especially in the United States and to accelerate our manufacturing site construction in Suzhou.
“We look forward to working closely with all our investors to continue the rapid advancement of developing novel drugs.”