China-headquartered Lilly Asia Ventures has backed an $18 million seed extension round for US-based Rgenta Therapeutics. In a separate development, IntoCare Medical Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd has raked in nearly 100 million yuan ($15 million) in a Series D round of financing led by Qiming Venture Partners.
Lilly Asia Ventures backs Rgenta’s seed+ funding
Massachusetts-based biotechnology firm Rgenta Therapeutics on Wednesday announced that it has raised $18 million in a seed extension round backed by Shanghai-headquartered life science-focused Lilly Asia Ventures (LAV) and global healthcare investment firm Vivo Capital.
The latest financing brings the total corpus raised by Rgenta to $38 million, the company said in a statement. In April 2020, it had closed a $20-million seed investment co-led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund and Matrix Partners China.
The new financing will help accelerate Rgenta’s pipeline toward clinical development, the company said.
Rgenta Therapeutics, which was co-founded in 2018 by former Pfizer and AbbVie executive Simon Xi, specialises in offering small-molecule RNA-targeting medicines that cater to oncology and neurological disorders.
“We look forward to working with the LAV and Vivo teams as we advance our therapeutic programs into the clinic and bring innovative therapies to benefit patients,” said Rgenta co-founder and CEO Xi.
IntoCare nets $15m in Series D
Chinese surgical instruments developer IntoCare Medical Technology has secured nearly 100 million yuan ($15 million) in a Series D round led by global investment firm Qiming Venture Partners, according to a company statement on Wednesday.
The round was joined by Oriza Holdings, Oriza FOFs and YuanBio Venture Capital.
IntoCare will deploy the proceeds for product R&D, clinical research and brand marketing. Meanwhile, it is poised to launch new offices and production sites.
IntoCare is engaged in manufacturing and distributing novel surgical equipment for doctors. It offers an extensive range of powered stapling solutions for surgeries and competes with medical device majors Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic.
“We are excited to see that Chinese medtech companies can build products that can rival global titans in product design. We believe that powered staplers will become an increasingly popular option for surgical doctors and gradually earn the mainstream position,” said Qiming Venture Partners managing partner William Hu.
In its statement, IntoCare cited a report by Puhua Youce Information Consulting that projects China’s stapler market size to reach 19 billion yuan ($297 million) by 2024.