Chi­nese VC syn­di­cates wa­ger $172M on As­cen­t­age and As­cle­tis, flag­ging a new trend

Here’s an­oth­er trend to pay close at­ten­tion to in 2017: Chi­nese biotechs are in­creas­ing­ly able to tap in­to lo­cal, state-backed ven­ture syn­di­cates for some big rounds aimed at back­ing am­bi­tious clin­i­cal de­vel­op­ment pro­grams.

To­day we’re of­fer­ing two ex­am­ples. The first is As­cen­t­age Phar­ma, a 7-year-old biotech fo­cused on can­cer as well as an un­usu­al part­ner­ship with Arch-backed Uni­ty on ag­ing. The Jiang­su, Chi­na-based com­pa­ny raised about $72 mil­lion for clin­i­cal work, with the Fu­ture In­dus­try In­vest­ment Fund un­der Chi­na’s State De­vel­op­ment & In­vest­ment Cor­po­ra­tion play­ing a key role. The sec­ond is As­cle­tis, which turned to a group of Chi­nese in­vestors for its $100 mil­lion Se­ries B.

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