China-based healthcare firm Zion Pharma has secured around $20 million in its Series A+ funding round, the media reported.
The funding round for Zion Pharma was led by Qiming Venture Partners and Sherpa Healthcare Partners.
Zion Pharma, which produces small molecule anti-tumor drugs, will use the funding to invest in the Phase I clinical trials of its major drug candidates in China and the US.
Reportedly, the firm will also use the funds to apply for Investigational New Drug (IND) permission to test other drug candidates in its pipeline.
Zion Pharma raised around $12 million in 2019 from investors such as Qiming Venture Partners, Medfine Capital, TF Capital and Ming Bioventures. The company also raised around $3 million in 2018, the year of its inception.
Last month, another China-based healthcare company Thousand Oaks Biopharmaceuticals raised around $64 million in its Series B funding round, the media reported.
The funding round for Thousand Oaks was led by CICC Capital’s sub-fund CICC Jiatai and CITIC Securities’ private equity arm Goldstone Investment Limited.
Other investors that participated in the funding round include China Construction Bank’s investment vehicle CCB International, Wens Investment and Shanghai Huaxu Investment.
Shun Luo, chief executive officer at Thousand Oaks told the media, “This round of financing allows us to expand our integrated CMC services and to increase current media production capacity by building the world’s largest cell culture medium manufacturing facility.”
During the same period, Antengene, a Chinese biopharmaceutical company, also secured around $97 million funding in its Series C funding round.
Antengene is hematology and oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company with integrated drug discovery, clinical development, manufacturing and commercialisation anchored in the Asia Pacific regions and with a global layout.