Chi­nese rare dis­ease play­er inks first deal around nar­colep­sy drug Wak­ix af­ter grab­bing $80M to build an ecosys­tem

Two months ago, the nar­colep­sy ther­a­py Wak­ix pro­pelled Har­mo­ny Bio­sciences to a $128 mil­lion de­but on Nas­daq. Now, the same drug is serv­ing as the foun­da­tion for a Chi­nese biotech look­ing to pi­o­neer a rare dis­ease plat­form in the coun­try.

Cit­rine Med­i­cine — which closed $80 mil­lion in Se­ries A fund­ing in Ju­ly — was in­cu­bat­ed by F-Prime and Eight Roads, two VC funds af­fil­i­at­ed with Fi­deli­ty In­vest­ments, and Vi­vo Cap­i­tal. The trio saw an open­ing in Chi­na to repli­cate in the vi­brant or­phan drug land­scape in the US and, to a less­er ex­tent, Eu­rope.

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