The heat in China's healthcare industry is not affected by the capital winter. The increasing demand generated by the enlarged population and the aging problem will drive the healthcare industry to move forward.
On December 10, 2018, Yuce Biological Technology(裕策生物, YuceBio) completed series B funding led by IDG with hundreds of millions yuan according to someone familiar with the situation. YuceBio is a biological tech company focusing on cancer immunotherapy and assistive cancer diagnosis gene detection. In a capital winter, new funding series occurred in the healthcare area reveal the capital heat of the industry.
Founded in 2015 in Shenzhen, China, YuceBio is the first biological tech concentrating in immunotherapy R&D approached from gene detection and big data. YuceBio’s ongoing program “Ladder for Cancer Moonshot” aims to build a collective gene database for R&D purpose and will apply AI and big data techs to analyze collected genetic and clinical data to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between genotype and immunity and the mechanism of the immune system in cancer treatment. YuceBio could diagnosis cancer by detecting the level of PD-1/PD-L1, a biomarker could indicate the existence of cancer cells. Since YuceBio has landed some biological techs in clinics, like YuceOne series, a real practitioner is more favored by venture capitalist, not just returns from investment, but tech should serve human ultimately.
Zoom out from a biological tech company in immunotherapy area, the healthcare industry’s capital winter was ended in 2017. From the second half of 2016, the total number of investments in China began to decline, and for biological tech & pharmaceutical industry, the number has bounced back from 2017’s 263 to current 342. Though the investment number declined, the funding amount is steadily ascending.
After the “Health China 2030” published by the State Council in October 2016, favorable policies have prompted clusters of healthcare startups ranges from pharmaceuticals to AI healthcare solutions. As marketsandmarket predicted in its recent analysis, the global cancer immunotherapy market will worth USD 119.39 billion by 2021. The growth of the immunotherapy market is largely contributed by population increase and in China, the structure change caused by aging problem may also contribute to the growth as side reason. The aging problem shadows China since the 21st century. Predicted by the State Information Center (Administration Center of China E-government Network), the aging population would excess 371 million, which is tantamount to 1/4 of the total population. Considering the aging issue, the healthcare industry’s capital spring is plausible and destined based on an essential demand of global population-pursuit of health.
--Author: FU YingWei; write to YingWei at YingWei@EqualOcean.com