Rec-Biotechnology (RecBio), a Chinese developer of genetically engineered vaccines, has secured about 1 billion yuan ($156.3 million) in a Series C round of financing jointly led by Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings and Hong Kong-based asset manager Lake Bleu Capital.
Chinese asset management company E Fund Management and private equity firm Boyu Capital participated in the round, alongside existing shareholders such as Legend Capital, an investment unit of China’s Legend Holdings, healthcare fund LYFE Capital, and Sequoia Capital China.
The new financing came about seven months after it raked in over 1.5 billion yuan in a Series B round in November 2020. Its Series A round, which was closed in January 2019, collected 500 million yuan from investors including Chinese venture capital firm Oriental Fortune Capital, and CR Capital Management, an affiliate of Chinese state-owned conglomerate China Resources.
Headquartered at eastern China’s Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, RecBio was established in 2012 as a merger between two Chinese biotech companies Jiangsu Rec-Biotechnology and Beijing Abzymo Biosciences. The firm focuses on the innovation, development, and commercialisation of genetically engineered vaccines for the treatment of major diseases.
It has developed a product pipeline covering a series of human papillomavirus vaccines (HPV), recombinant zoster vaccines (RZV), vaccines for the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis, and recombinant COVID vaccines at different R&D phases.
The new investment will finance the construction of RecBio’s industrialisation projects. While the firm has yet to commercialise any products, it is already in the process of building an HPV manufacturing base that is expected to formally start operations in 2024 with an annual production capacity of five million doses of HPV 9-valent vaccines.
It is also investing in constructing another manufacturing project that is estimated to deliver 300 million doses of recombinant COVID-19 vaccines per year upon its completion in the second half of 2021, according to its website.
RecBio plans to use the rest of the proceeds to support the clinical trials of recombinant COVID, HPV 9-valent, and other vaccine candidates currently under development. It aims to further expand the product pipeline and develop its core technology platform.
“China’s vaccine market still has unmet demand. [The country’s need for] major vaccines, including HPV and zoster vaccines, are dependent on imports, which means there is a huge market potential for domestic alternatives,” said Bin Li, founder, CEO and chief investment officer at Lake Bleu Capital, in a WeChat post.