HONG KONG and SUZHOU, China, and HANGZHOU, China, Dec. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Transcenta Holding Limited ("Transcenta"), a global biotherapeutics company with fully-integrated capabilities in discovery, development and manufacturing of antibody-based therapeutics, announces today the completion of a 105 million USD crossover financing. China Structural Reform Fund led the financing round, participated by new investors including Country Garden Venture Capital, Qatar Investment Authority, and other prominent institutional investors. Existing investors including CCT China Merchants Fund, Lilly Asia Ventures, Teng Yue Partners, Sequoia Capital China and others also participated in this round. China Renaissance acted as the lead financial advisor for this transaction, and Bank of China International as joint financial advisor.
The year 2020 has marked many significant milestones for Transcenta. Multiple senior clinical leaders joined the company during the last six months. With multiple assets in clinical stage, the Company has been pushing the robust pipeline forward aggressively. TST001, a CLDN18.2 targeting antibody and one of its leading programs, has been moving quickly in clinic in both US and China. Transcenta will also file IND soon for TST005, a second generation PD-L1 - TGFβ bifunctional molecule. Transcenta has also expanded its Hangzhou facility with a fill & finish line as well as 2000L bioreactors. Its perfusion biomanufacturing platform has achieved further breakthroughs including achieving industry leading productivity of more than 4 g/L per day for multiple cell lines and successful scale-up of perfusion process to 200L for GMP production for an in-house bispecific antibody. Within the past months, Transcenta has also sealed strategic partnership with international technology innovators such as Merck KG to advance its continuous manufacturing technology capabilities.
"Transcenta has been focusing on discovering, developing and delivering novel and high quality antibody therapeutics at affordable price. We appreciate the support of new and existing investors for their confidence in Transcenta. The proceeds from new funding will be used to accelerate our ongoing clinical programs and prepare for commercialization," commented Dr. Xueming Qian, Transcenta's Co-Founder and CEO.
"We are excited to welcome new investors in this crossover financing. Joined by multiple long-term investors, including international funds, sovereign funds, as well as China mega funds, Transcenta is strategically positioned to sustain long-term growth, bringing quality and affordable biotherapeutics to patients worldwide," said Transcenta's Co-Founder and Chairman Dr. Jonathan Y. Zhao.
Ran Wei, General Manager of Chengtong Fund Management, which manages China Structural Reform Fund commented, "As the next-generation leader in novel drug development and commercialization, Transcenta is a platform company with fully integrated capabilities focusing on biotherapeutics. We are pleased to join hands with the other new and existing shareholders to support Transcenta along its journey of bringing the best treatment to the market."
Kevin Xie, Managing Director of China Renaissance, commented, "We are fortunate to have witnessed all the milestones that Transcenta has accomplished since its merger, and pleased to have helped seal the 2 financing rounds. We look forward to more breakthroughs the Company is to bring and the successful story it continues to write."
Source: Transcenta