Shenzhen Forward Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (“Forward Pharma”) recently has announced the completion of ten millions of CNY in Series A+ funding.
Forward Pharma is an innovative enterprise deliciated to the research and development of a new generation of small molecule drugs and antibody targeted drugs. Forward’s self-developed innovative drugs have been approved for clinical trial conduct in China and the United States, as the main product, FWD1509, will meet the huge demand for precision treatment in the global lung cancer field.
According to Forward Pharma, this round of financing will be mainly used for the clinical trials of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) targeting drug FWD1509, and the clinical development of the third-generation oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) FWD1802 in breast cancer.
According to Frost & Sullivan, the global market size of small molecule targeted drug was USD 41.4 billion in 2018, of which the China’s small molecule targeted drug market size was CNY 11.4 billion. The Chinese small molecule targeted drug market is predicted to reach CNY 26.5 billion in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 18.4%. China has the highest incidence and mortality rate of cancer in the world. Among them, lung cancer has the highest incidence rate in China. In this case, the limited variety of drugs and large unmet clinical needs are driving the development of the industry.
The small molecule innovative drug industry has a wide range, a large quantity, and fierce competition. Innovative pharmaceutical companies in the clinical stage of antibody drugs include Hyperway (海博为药业), YL-PHARMA(璎黎药业), InventisBio (益方生物), Abbisko (和誉生物), JSI (捷思英达) etc.
Dr. Chenggang Zhu, co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Forward Pharma, stated: " Forward will actively promote the clinical development of the existing FWD1509 and FWD1802 pipelines, as well as the subsequent research and development of multiple preclinical pipelines. We look forward to Forward’s independently developed innovative drugs benefiting a large number of patients as soon as possible."
This round of financing for Forward Pharma was invested by Shenzhen Nanshan Strategic Emerging Industry Investment (南山战新投), Qihang Investment (启航医药基金), Shenzhen Leaguer (力合科创) and V Fund (云晖资本), China Supernova Capital (远星资本) acted as the financial advisor.