The funding will boost the company's HL-085 clinical project, aiming to discover and smooth the path for new drug treatments.
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The Shanghai-based research firm, KeChow Pharma (科州制药), announced on December 13 that it has completed USD 45 million in its Series C funding round. The funding was led by Silicon Valley-based investment firm Decheng Capital (德城资本), with participation from Qiming Venture Partners (启明创投), Sherpa Capital (夏尔巴投资) and the existing investor Grains Valley (磐谷创投).
Founded in 2014 by Lilly Asia Ventures (礼来亚洲基金) and Morningside Ventures (晨兴投资), Kechow Pharma focuses on the research and development of small molecule anti-cancer drugs and aims to provide high-end innovative drugs to meet clinical needs.
The funding will be used primarily to promote the HL-085 clinical project, anti-cancer drug research, enriching the company's product pipeline and an eventual IPO listing, according to 36Kr.
After the funding raising, Xu Qiang (徐强), a partner of Decheng Capital, said that they are optimistic about the HL-085 clinical project, which will bring better treatment solutions for cancer patients. And they will continue to support the KeChow R&D department.
Since last year, Decheng Capital has been among the leading investors in the healthcare sector. In 2018, the investment firm provided funding worth over USD 240 million to several healthcare companies, including the American-based Startup Omniome and Nanjing-based biopharmaceutical firm Impact Therapeutics.
The renowned Chinese VC firm Qiming Venture Partners, which manages more than USD 2.7 billion assets worldwide, has injected a record sum of more than USD 900 million in healthcare firms in 2019, according to Itjuzi (IT句子), a Chinese Crunchbase-like database. As the year ends, that amount is projected to surpass the USD 1 billion mark.
In early January this year, Qiming injected a considerable amount of capital into the Zhejiang-based ant-cancer drug developer Antengene (德琪医药, USD 120 million) and the US-based therapeutic firm Talaris Therapeutics (USD 100 million).
The amount of VC/ PE capital directed to the healthcare industry is experiencing rapid growth year by year, particularly in China where the central government is encouraging and promoting investment to deal with the needs of an ageing population, who are becoming a burden for the governmental budget year-on-year.