Hong Kong, Aug. 8th, 2015 — Ascentage Pharma, a China-based, global-oriented, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on discovery and development of targeted small-molecule cancer therapies, announced the closing of its Round A financing of 15.5 million US dollars (96 million RMB). The financing was co-led by Oriza Capital and YuanMing Capital, and joined by EFung Capital, BioVenture Capital, Grains Valley Venture Capital, among others. Ascentage Pharma has previously received US$3 million strategic investment from 3SBio, one of China's largest biotechnology companies, which recently listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange (1350. HK) and raised $770M US dollars (1350.HK).
Lawrence Yuan Tian, the founding partner of YuanMing Capital said, "We are impressed by Ascentage's outstanding management team, cutting-edge, innovative technology, and robust R&D pipeline." Dr. Tian is the Founder and Chairman of China Entrepreneurs Forum, the most notable platform for entrepreneurs in China. He is also the Founder and Chairman of China-U.S. Business Leaders Roundtable.
YuanMing Capital is a healthcare specialty fund focusing on China-US cross border investments with offices in Beijing and New York City. The investment team, with proven track record, has rich industry experience and brings strategic resources to its portfolio companies. The fund invests in high-quality US and China companies throughout the healthcare industry, including therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics and healthcare service. Oriza Capital, headquartered in Suzhou China, is an RMB 1.5 billion early stage venture fund that focuses on innovative startups in hi-tech industries including TMT and healthcare.
"We warmly welcome our new investors, who are also our important partners, on board," said Dr. Dajun Yang, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Ascentage Pharma. "Our investors see great potential in Ascentage's unique, robust, and world-class innovative drug development pipeline. We appreciate the trust from our investors, and are excited about what this new financing bridges along. Together, we will be able to bring safe and effective targeted cancer therapies to millions of patients in China and around the globe faster, and to create a bright further for Ascentage Pharma."
Ascentage Pharma was co-founded by Dajun Yang, M.D. Ph.D., Ming Guo, Ph.D., and Shaomeng Wang, Ph.D. in 2009 and is dedicated to the R&D and commercialization of innovative, targeted small molecule cancer therapies. The founding team has extensive drug discovery and development expertise and proven track-record. Ascentage Pharma's drug discovery team is led by Shaomeng Wang, Ph.D., an internationally renowned medicinal chemist and drug developer and the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of Medicine at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
"We are developing new drugs for new targets, competing directly with global pharmaceutical companies," Dr. Yang, told BioWorld Today in his earlier interview. Ascentage Pharma's current pipeline includes a pan Bcl-2 inhibitor in Phase II trials in both China and the US and a small-molecule antagonist of the IAP family proteins in Phase I trials in both China and Australia; one new drug submitted for IND approval, two additional drugs ready for IND filing in 2015 and several preclinical discovery programs targeting key oncogenic drivers in human cancer.
Ascentage Pharma plans to use the fund to advance its clinical development programs and research programs, to upgrade and expand its current CMC facilities and manufacturing infrastructure.