BEIJING, CHINA and CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, US – (April 21, 2021) –EdiGene, Inc. ( “Company”, or “EdiGene”), today announced the successful completion of an RMB 400 million (approximately USD 62 million) Series B Plus financing. Loyal Valley Capital led the round and other new investors included BioTrack Capital and Sherpa Healthcare Partners, along with continued support by existing investors including IDG Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, 3H Health Investment, Huagai Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Alwin Capital and Kunlun Capital. EdiGene is a biotech company develops genome editing technologies to accelerate drug discovery and develop novel therapeutics for a broad range of diseases. Previously the company completed a Series B Financing of an RMB 450 million (approximately USD 67 million) in October 2020. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance the company’s pipeline into clinics and to scale up the business operation.
“We are delighted to add these top tier investors and are grateful for the continuous support from the current investors,” said Dong Wei, Ph.D.，CEO of EdiGene, “The company is speeding up portfolio advancement and scaling up business footprints. Adding to our existing Beijing R&D center and Guangzhou Clinical Application Center, we have opened our Clinical Development Office in Beijing, Business Development Office in Shanghai and launched a R&D center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The round enables us to continue our efforts in translating gene-editing technologies into therapeutics and further grow the company in terms of scale, global competitiveness and business development. With these efforts, we strive to bring innovative therapies to patients in need sooner.”
“We are grateful for the investors’ support, which enables us to move forward in R&D, company scale and globalization and propel the company to a brand new stage,” said Wensheng Wei, Ph.D., Scientific Founder of EdiGene, “We will continue to translate genome editing technologies into transformative therapies, bringing new hope and new options to patients in China and around the world.”
In January 2021, the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE) of China National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) has approved EdiGene’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application for ET-01, an investigational CRISPR/Cas 9 gene-editing therapy for patients with transfusion dependent β-thalassemia. It marks the first gene-editing therapy and the first hematopoietic stem cell therapy IND application approval in China. The Company is preparing to initiate ET-01’s Phase I clinical trial, and furthermore, is advancing other assets including allogeneic CAR-T therapy, in vivo therapies based on RNA base editing technology LEAPERTM, as well as novel targeted therapies discovered through high-throughput genome-editing screening.
About EdiGene, Inc
EdiGene is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on leveraging the cutting-edge genome editing technologies to accelerate drug discovery and develop novel therapeutics for a broad range of genetic diseases and cancer. The company has established its proprietary ex vivo genome-editing platforms for hematopoietic stem cells and T cells, in vivo therapeutic platform based on RNA base editing, and high-throughput genome-editing screening to discover novel targeted therapies. Founded in 2015, EdiGene is headquartered in Beijing, with offices in Guangzhou and Shanghai, China and Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. More information can be found at www.edigene.com.
Source: EdiGene