A new­ly pri­vate No­var­tis part­ner bags a megaround on its first go to tur­bocharge CAR-T, cell ther­a­py pipeline

An ear­ly fore­run­ner of Chi­nese biotech’s grow­ing in­flu­ence glob­al­ly, Cel­lu­lar Bio­med­i­cine — or CB­MG – ap­peared to be tak­ing two steps back­ward when it delist­ed on Nas­daq and went pri­vate ear­ly this year. But the biotech had its eyes set on the fu­ture, and a new megaround of fundrais­ing with big-name back­ers on board could put its plans back on the right track.

CB­MG Hold­ings closed a $120 mil­lion Se­ries A with back­ing from a group of promi­nent phar­ma play­ers to dri­ve its lead CAR-T ther­a­pies through the clin­ic and juice up its bud­ding cell ther­a­py pipeline, the com­pa­ny said Thurs­day. The round was co-led by the As­traZeneca-CI­CC Fund, Se­quoia Cap­i­tal Chi­na and Yun­feng Cap­i­tal with par­tic­i­pa­tion from new and ex­ist­ing in­vestors, in­clud­ing No­var­tis, GIC and TF Cap­i­tal, CB­MG said in a re­lease.

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