China-based vaccine developer Tianjin CanSino Biotechnology closed a $65m funding round on Tuesday backed by Lilly Asia Ventures, a strategic investment vehicle for pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.
The round also featured Future Industry Investment Fund, which is managed by a subsidiary of the Chinese government-owned State Development & Investment Corp, as well as Gopher Asset, Fortune Capital, Goldstone Investment and QiMing Venture Partners.
Founded in 2009, CanSino is working on clinical-stage vaccine candidates for Ebola, tuberculosis, cervical cancer and pneumococcal infection as well as combination vaccines for other infectious diseases.
The funding will support the commercialisation of CanSino’s late-stage vaccines as it looks to establish and ready a production facility in the city of Tianjin, where it is headquartered, by 2018.
Additional capital will go to clinical studies and the development of more vaccine candidates as well as the formation of information management systems.
Yu Xuefeng, chairman and CEO of CanSino, said: “It is due to the great team efforts that we have been able to make significant progress from R&D to commercialisation. This round of financing will allow CanSino to further advance its pipeline and build its commercialisation capacity.
“We appreciate that CanSino’s achievements and potential are recognised by well-known investors. We are delighted to welcome our new investors and thank our existing investors for their continue support.”
Lilly Asia Ventures had previously invested $10m in CanSino in 2013, while Qiming also participated in the latest round as an existing backer.