Genetron has secured over CNY 500 million from state-backed CICC's healthcare arm and healthcare-focused investment firm Vivo Capital. Just after the announcement, the firm applied for an IPO in the US to raise USD 100 more on November 21.
Genetron Health's (泛生子) USD 100 million IPO application revealed on November 21 that it had carried out new funding round over CNY 500 million led by CICC's Healthcare Investment Fund and Vivo Capital. The fresh capital will be used to bankroll the genomics firm's R&D expenses of cancer in vitro diagnostics products, the company announced at the dawn of its IPO application.
CICC and Credit Suisse are the bookrunners of the application. The filing revealed USD 42 million in sales for the 12 months ended September 30, 2019.
The firm is on board with precision medicine and immunotherapy train in China. Genetron team is assisting the patients in tracking treatment progress from selecting targeted drugs and chemotherapy drugs, evaluating the efficacy of immunotherapy and monitoring drug resistance, the company claims. These services are the basic blocks of precision medicine in cancer. Although it is still nascent, the co-founder and CEO of Genetron Health Sizhen Wang is optimistic about the near future of precision medicine of cancer in China.
China's biotechnology private equity investments have been consolidated in immunotherapy and genomics in 2019, this capital entrance represents yet another transaction in the lucrative industry.
Besides cancer screening and in Vitra diagnostics, the company has been boasting of its pharmaceutical third party research services as well, i.e. the services provided as CROs, yet it did not mention any particular multinational or Chinese company that it has been cooperating to.
"After securing CNY 220 million at the beginning of 2018, the company progressed tremendously, and we are more than excited to see how they invest our money," said Wu Xia (吴夏) Manager Director at CICC Capital.