China-based liver disease treatment developer Ascletis closed a $100m series B round yesterday with backing from pharmaceutical company Tasly Pharmaceuticals.
Healthcare investment fund C-Bridge Capital led the round, which also featured outdoor advertising firm Focus Media’s Jiangnanchun Foundation, QianHai Equity Investment FOF, WTT Investment and Goldman Sachs.
Ascletis is working on treatments for liver diseases, and its primary focus is currently chronic hepatitis C (CHC).
The company has two direct-acting antiviral agents in clinical trials, licensed from Roche and Presidio Pharmaceuticals, to treat the condition and will use the series B financing to extend its focus to other liver disease areas like chronic hepatitis B.
The round follows a $55m series A closed by Ascletis in December 2015. Tasly, C-Bridge and the Singaporean state-owned Pavilion Capital co-led the round’s $35m first tranche in September, before Tasly and Goldman Sachs added $20m.
Jinzi J. Wu, founder and CEO of Ascletis, said: “[The] $100m series B financing at the beginning of the New Year will definitely bring an extraordinary 2017 for Ascletis.
“We aim to make the historical step of being the first Chinese company to launch in 2017 an innovative medicine treating CHC patients in China. We will expand our liver disease pipeline to provide more high quality medicines for Chinese and global markets.”