Suzhou Abogen Biosciences has raised as much as 600-million yuan ($92 million) in its Series B round of funding to expand its operation, per an announcement.
The fresh round was jointly led by state-owned investment entities PICC Capital, and SDIC Venture Capital Management, besides YF Capital, a PE firm co-founded by Alibaba’s Jack Ma in 2010.
While LYFE Capital and Highlight Capital came in as new investors, the company’s existing backers GL Ventures, TF Capital and Ming Bioventures also topped up in the round.
While the company has earmarked a part of the funding to accelerate its R&D work of COVID-19 vaccine products, it plans to use another part to facilitate the construction of a manufacturing facility and develop its pipeline of products.
Abogen, established in 2019, specializes in developing mRNA drugs and vaccines for cancers and infectious diseases.
In the statement, Abogen said that its flagship coronavirus mRNA vaccine (ARCoV) – in partnership with the People’s Liberation Army Academy of Military Sciences and Walvax Biotechnology – has received the approval of the National Medical Products Administration for a clinical trial in June 2020.
Abogen promoter Bo Ying is the largest shareholder in the company – he holds 40.01% stake in it. Meanwhile, Pantera Capital and SDIC hold 18.70% and 11.70 equity interests, respectively.
