Nov 30, 2016

China: Zhongwei backs Vedeng; SDIC invests in Innovent Biologics Subscribe to our newsletter Tomas S. Noda III November 30, 2016: &nbsp Two healthtech startups in China, Vedeng Corp , and Innovent Biologics , have raised $9.4 million, and $260 million respectively in separate funding rounds, the China Money Network reported. Zhongwei backs Vedeng $9.4m in Series A Vedeng Corp, a medical equipment B2B e-commerce portal in China, raised $9.4 million in its Series A round funded by investment platform Zhongwei Fund . Zhongwei Fund is owned by the former parent company of Meinian Onehealth Healthcare Holdings Co Ltd, Oriental Fortune Capital and Puhua Capital. The latter is a local venture capital firm focused on healthcare, and has backed surgical robot firm Remebot and iGeneTech, a genetic testing design platform in China. Zhongwei Fund is one of many healthcare-focused investment funds under Shanghai Tianyi Group, from which Meinian Onehealth was seeded. Vedeng previously raised RMB30 million in a pre-A round from Share Capital and a Shenzhen investment fund in 2015. It claims to have over 50,000 dealers on its platform, which covers all major clinics and hospitals in China. And with a team of nearly 20,000 medical equipment engineers on call, Vedeng also helps provide after-sales services on behalf of manufacturers. The Nanjing-based Vedeng launched its platform in 2012, connecting upstream manufacturers with medical equipment dealers and private clinics. Also Read: Chinese biopharma firm CStone gets $150m Series A from Oriza, Boyu, WuXi SDIC leads $260m Series D in Innovent Biologics Biopharmaceutical firm Innovent Biologics has reportedly received $260 million in a Series D round led by vehicle fund managed by Chinese state-owned investment entity State Development & Investment Corp (SDIC) . Other companies that joined the round were new investors China Life Investment Holding Co Ltd, Taikang Insurance Co Ltd, Ping An Insurance, and also existing investors Legend Capital, Temasek Holdings, and Hillhouse Capital. Innovent Biologics will realise a total funding of $410 million once the latest round is completed. Its goal is to bring highly complex drugs to the masses. Innovent Biologics plans to use the proceeds of the latest funding on research and development of new drugs, and expand its industrialisation capabilities. Founded in 2011, Innovent Biologics’s product portfolio includes 12 anti-body covering oncology, immunity and cardiovascular diseases, of which four have entered the clinical stage. In 2015, Innovent Biologics entered into an agreement with Eli Lilly to co-develop and co-commercialize six antibody drugs over the next 10 years. It became the first biopharmaceutical product invented by a Chinese firm to be licensed to a global company. Also Read: