Taiwan-based cancer drug developer JHL Biotech has raised an undisclosed amount of capital from investors including pharmaceutical firm Sanofi, Bloomberg reported today.
The round also featured undisclosed additional existing and new investors, and valued JHL at approximately $750m.
Founded in 2012, JHL is working on biosimilar cancer drugs. Biosimilars are drugs that resemble a product already approved by regulators, but unlike generic medicines their complexity means they are not an identical copy of the original.
The money is expected to go toward the development of JHL’s lead assets, which are in phase 3 clinical trials, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg, though the company’s website currently only lists two candidates that are yet to begin those trials.
The first candidate is JHL1101, a biosimilar of Rituximab, which is used to treat cancer types such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The second is JHL1149, a biosimilar of Bevacizumab, which targets types of cancer such as metastatic colorectal cancer.
JHL secured the funding as it prepares an initial public offering in Hong Kong, with previous reports suggesting it was hoping to raise up to $250m. JHL had issued shares on the Taipei Exchange in 2015 but delisted in February this year.
The company most recently secured $106m in a convertible note financing led by VMS Investment Group with commitments from unnamed, existing shareholders.
Sanofi invested $80m in JHL in 2016 when it also supplied $21m in an upfront payment for rights to JHL1101 and options to certain pipeline products, also committing up to $236m in milestone and sales royalty payments as part of a partnership agreement.
JHL had raised more than $135m before it went public the first time, including $45.6m in a 2015 series C round led by an unnamed fund manager with participation from investment firms Milestone Capital, Sungent BioVenture and Liwick Investment Management.
Milestone Capital led JHL’s $35m series B round in 2014, with participation from biotech commercialisation firm TaiAn Technologies and investment firms President International Development Corp, Fubon Financial Holdings, Taishin Financial Holdings and Hotung Group.
Private investor Allen Chao also took part in the series B round, as did returning series A investors China Development Industrial Bank, Biomark Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.
