C-Bridge Capital and Tasly Holdings have invested $150 million in backing a merger of pharmaceutical firms in China. Meanwhile, Dadao Financial has closed a $29 million Series B round.
C-Bridge Capital & Tasly Holdings invest $150m to back pharma merger
C-Bridge Capital Partners LLC, a private equity (PE) fund targeting healthcare, has partnered Tianjin-based traditional Chinese medicine firm Tasly Holding Group to invest $150 million in a new drug developer resulting from the merger of Shanghai-based Tianjing Biopharma Technology and Tianjin-based Tianzhenshi Biotechnology Company.
This new entity will have 12 innovative antibody drugs in the pipeline. Tianjing Biopharma was founded by Zang Jingwu, a former SVP and China head of R&D at GlaxoSmithKline Plc. Zang previously worked for contract research organisation Hangzhou Tigermed Consulting Co., Ltd, and precision medical care company Bioscikin, which develops new drugs for tumour immunity and autoimmune diseases.
It closed an undisclosed Series A round from I-Bridge Capital in October 2016.
Tianzhenshi is backed by Tasly, I-Bridge and Genexine, Inc. Proceeds from this investment will support R&D efforts and accelerate both clinical applications and internationalisation.
January 2016 saw C-Bridge invest $100 million in Chinese biotech firm Ascletis, which develops drugs to treat infectious diseases including Hepatitis C and related cancers. Another investment was a $25 million takeover of medical equipment maker Anrei Medical (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd.
Dadao Financial secures $29m Series B
China Renaissance Private Equity Fund, a private equity arm under China Renaissance, has led a RMB200 million (US$29 million) series B round in Shenzhen-based Dadao Financial, a real estate financing services platform.
