Hua Medicine, a China-based drug development and commercialization company, has raised $50m from a consortium including WuXi PharmaTech Corporate Venture.
Alongside WuXi (also known as WuXi AppTech) in the round were venture capital firms Arch Venture Partners and Venrock, mutual fund manager Fidelity’s Biosciences and Growth Partners Asia corporate venturing units and Sino-Alliance International.
Hua was founded by Li Chen, who had previously been the chief scientific officer and head of research at Switzerland-based drugs developer Roche’s China research and development centre.
WuXi set up its corporate venturing unit after the collapse of its $1.6bn merger with Charles River Laboratories in July last year.
Edward Hu, chief financial officer of WuXi PharmaTech, said: "WuXi’s corporate venture fund was set up to fund companies like Hua Medicine that bring together great minds to develop and commercialize innovative technologies and products through fruitful collaborations.
"With an elite drug development team, Hua Medicine is well positioned to pursue multiple projects that cover the spectrum from early development programs to in-licensing of assets for successful commercialization in China."
Daniel Auerbach, managing partner of Fidelity Growth Partners Asia and a Hua board member, added: "Unlike most biotechnology start-ups which may take a decade or more to become profitable, Hua is in a position to utilize its development, regulatory and commercialization expertise to create substantial near-term value from a pipeline of late stage programs."
"We are very excited about Hua’s opportunities and the company is currently in discussions with a number of municipalities about establishing additional local facilities for our programs."