Crown Bioscience, a US-based creator of a development platform for drugs to treat cancer and metabolic diseases, has received $26.6m in a series D round led by Lilly Asia Ventures Fund II, a corporate venturing affiliate of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.
The company has now raised about $78m in funding, including $30.5m from a series C round featuring OrbiMed Advisors Caduceus Asia Partners Fund, Argonaut Private Equity, the CID Group, IBT, and CDIB Capital Investment, Qiming Venture Partners and China Renaissance Capital Investment that closed in April 2013.
Jean-Pierre Wery, president of Crown Bioscience, said: “The investment will allow us to expand our drug development services in oncology and metabolic disease to meet the demand and interest our technologies have generated through dramatically improving the clinical success of promising clinical candidates.”
Further capital will potentially be used to acquire other businesses, Wery added. Expanding its translational platforms will enable Crown’s partners to test their drugs on a wider range of models before they advance to clinical trials.