China-based biopharmaceuticals developer Juventas completed an RMB100m ($14.5m) series A-plus round yesterday led by drug manufacturer Casi Pharmaceuticals, according to China Money Network.
Venture capital firms Dalton Venture and Panacea Venture both contributed to the round.
Founded in June 2018 and previously called Juventas Cell Therapy, the company develops immunotherapeutic drugs while also providing R&D, production and marketing services.
Juventas has opened an R&D base in northeastern China and is currently developing a facility for producing immune cell therapies at regulatory standards.
Casi Pharmaceuticals licensed the global rights to Juventas’s Car T-cell drug candidate, CNCT19, in June 2019, in exchange for a $11.6m investment likely to have formed part of the latest round.
CNCT19 targets the CD19 protein – found on the surface of many B-cells – to combat blood diseases including B-cell-driven subtypes of leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The series A-plus funding will primarily go to R&D with a view to commencing clinical trials of new drug candidates, though a share of the capital will also help complete Juventas’s manufacturing facility.
VC firm Redhill Capital previously led a $23.7m series A round for Juventas in December 2018 that was backed by Dalton Venture.