Maxvax Biotechnology, a Chinese developer of innovative vaccines and immunotherapies targeting infectious diseases and cancer, has closed an IDG Capital-led extension round, bringing its total Series C financing to over 600 million yuan ($82.5 million).
The firm closed more than 300 million yuan ($41.3 million) in its latest Series C+ round, roping in Hangkang Capital, a healthcare-focused venture capital (VC) company, and Shenzhen-based fund-of-funds (FoF) specialist Qianhai Ark Asset Management.
This extension round came just four months after Maxvax raised a Series C round at nearly 300 million yuan from the National New Materials Fund for Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading, a 27.5-billion-yuan ($3.8 billion) state investment vehicle managed by the government-owned Shenzhen Capital Group.
With the completion of the Series C tranches, Maxvax has collected almost 2 billion yuan ($275.1 million) in total financing since its inception in 2016.
The firm raised its Series B round across two tranches in 2022, including a 500-million-yuan ($68.8 million) Series B round in July and an over-200-million-yuan ($27.5 million) extension round in December.
China Life Private Equity Investment, an investment subsidiary of Chinese insurer China Life, led its Series B transactions. GL Ventures, the VC arm of billionaire Zhang Lei’s Hillhouse Capital Group, Sherpa Healthcare Partners, and others participated in the deals.
Led by Dr. Chen Dexiang, who spent over 30 years specialising in developing vaccines and vaccine adjuvants at global pharmaceutical firms like Pfizer and Novartis, Maxvax focuses on the R&D, production, and commercialisation of innovative human and veterinary vaccines.
While it has yet to commercialise any of its pipeline products, Maxvax is targeting to reach the commercialisation stage in the next 2-3 years, according to Chen.
The Series C financing will fund the firm’s advancement of a leading candidate vaccine, new product development, as well as the pre-clinical research and global collaboration of multiple vaccines under its pipeline.
Specifically, Maxvax plans to invest the proceeds in Phase III clinical trials of its recombinant herpes zoster vaccine, which aims to prevent herpes zoster, a viral infection that often occurs in adults aged 50 and above.
The firm will put the remaining capital into the Phase I and Phase II research of a new recombinant respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, targeting the prevention of lower respiratory tract diseases that can affect people of all ages, especially the elderly and kids.
Its most advanced pipeline products are two vaccines, including the herpes zoster vaccine and another recombinant vaccine targeting the prevention of rotavirus, which is a highly contagious virus that causes diarrhoea, especially among children the age of five and below. The two vaccines are both undergoing Phase II clinical trials.