Lilly Asia Ventures, a regional corporate venturing subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, has led a $25m series B round for China-based drug developer ImmuneOnco Biopharma, DealStreetAsia reported on Tuesday.
The transaction also featured private equity firm Lyfe Capital and fund manager Milestone Capital China.
Founded in 2015, ImmuneOnco is working on seven immunotherapy candidates intended to empower the body’s immune system to counteract diseases such as cancer. The series B proceeds are expected to fund in-human clinical trials for its pipeline.
ImmuneOnco closed a $6.4m pre-series B round in February 2020 backed by Shengzhou Minglang Industrial Development Equity Investment Fund Partnership and Shijiazhuang High-tech Zone Pu’enguoxin Equity Investment Center.
The February round followed a $15.8m series A led by IDG Capital in early 2018 that included Lanxess Investment, Zhonghai Investment, Longpan Investment, Licheng Assets, Yaluo Investment and Chongde Hongxin.
Yaluo Investment had supplied an undisclosed amount of pre-series A funding for ImmuneOnco in 2017, the year after an investment from Zhangjiang Technology Investment. Shanghai Zhangke Lingyi Investment Corporation had supplied $3.9m for the company in 2015.