China’s Porton Advanced Solutions has secured over $80 million in a Series B funding round as the domestic contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) looks to further expand its business with a continued focus on providing gene and cell therapy services.
Porton Advanced, a subsidiary of Chinese publicly-listed CDMO Porton Pharma Solutions, raised the funding from lead investor Merchant Health, China Merchants Group’s healthcare-focused private equity (PE) fund, along with its sister funds China Merchants Capital and China Merchants Securities Investments, the startup announced in a press release over the weekend.
The Series B round attracted new investors, including China’s SDIC-Taikang Trust; Guangzhou-based investment firm Gortune Investment; and Fosun Health Capital, an investment arm of Chinese drugmaker Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical. Existing investors CMG-SDIC Capital, HM Capital, Ruilian Investment, Momentum Venture and its parent company also backed the deal, the startup said.
Porton Advanced plans to use the proceeds to advance its global foray, elevate its commercial operations and construct key manufacturing facilities in its goal towards building an end-to-end gene and cell therapy CDMO platform.
Established in December 2018 and headquartered in China’s Suzhou City, Porton Advanced operates an integrated platform providing a spectrum of CDMO services covering plasmids, cell therapy, gene therapy, oncolytic virus, nucleic acid therapy and microbial vectors used for gene therapy (MVGTs).
While currently running a 40,000-sq-ft R&D and GMP production facility in Suzhou, the firm is building a new 160,000-sq-ft plant expected to be operational by the end of 2022 or early 2023 for commercial production.
“Cell and gene therapies hold great promise for patients as well as for long-term commercial success,” said a representative of China Merchants Health in the press release.
China’s cell and gene therapy (CGT) industry has developed substantially in recent years, contributing to about half of the registered CGT trials worldwide, according to Simon-Kucher. The global consultancy firm expects the market to grow further, driven by China’s evolving regulatory environment, improved market access and emerging funding pathways.
The fundraising update comes about 16 months after Porton Advanced pocketed 400 million yuan ($58.3 million) in a Series A round from investors including GL Ventures, the venture capital (VC) unit of Hillhouse Capital Group.
Its parent firm Porton Pharma Solutions, which started listing shares in Shenzhen in early 2014, provides over 600 clients with process R&D and manufacturing services across small molecule APIs, dosage forms and biologics through its offices in China, Europe and the US.
Porton Pharma Solutions posted a revenue of 3.1 billion yuan ($451.7 million) and net profit of 523.9 million yuan ($76.3 million) in the fiscal year of 2021, according to its latest financial results.