China-based metabolic disease drug developer Sciwind Biosciences has secured RMB200m ($29.5m) in a series A round led by Legend Capital, the venture capital firm established by conglomerate Legend Holdings, China Money Network has reported.
The round included pharmaceutical company Kawin Technology and asset management firm Shiyu Investment Management.
Founded in 2017, Sciwind Biosciences is developing therapies in order to treat metabolic diseases such as liver fibrosis and cirrhosis.
The company’s lead candidate is aimed at non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a type of fatty liver disease caused by inflammation of the liver.
Sciwind plans to now file investigational new drug applications for two drug candidates in 2019. The company has not listed details of any previous funding rounds but described Kawin and Shiyu as existing investors.
Wang Junfeng, managing director at Legend Capital, told China Money Network: “China’s biopharmaceutical industry is at a golden era of rapid development, in which there is an unmissable opportunity behind the great clinical needs of biological treatments for NASH.”