With $190M in investor cash to play with, China's Chime Biologics looks to build 15x manufacturing capacity by 2024
One year after establishing itself as a stand-alone CDMO, Chime Biologics will start the second phase of a facility expansion that plans to increase its manufacturing capacity to more than 140,000 liters within the next five years.
The news comes after the company announced Thursday that it closed an expanded $190 million Series A round.
Xianfang “John” Zeng“We will continuously build up advanced technology platforms and more capacities to better serve our customers, and also welcome biologics partners from all over the world to come here, exchanging experiences and seeking for developments together,” CEO Xianfang “John” Zeng said in a statement.
The Wuhan, China-based CDMO split from JHL Biologics in 2020 and sits in a 150,000-square-foot facility in the Wuhan BioLake zone. Its focus is on monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibodies, fusion proteins and enzymes.
The current facility is equipped with 9,000 liters of bioreactor capacity. The company hopes to expand to 27,000 liters capacity by 2022 and 140,000 liters by 2024.
In 2018, JHL was the focus of a lawsuit that alleged the company had illegally obtained trade information to help develop copycat cancer drugs. As part of a settlement for that case, the company had to destroy and abandon development of all related cell materials.
Of the $190 million investment, over $100 million of that was already closed Thursday, and led by VMS Group, Fidelity International and Panacea Venture. In 2020, Chime secured $125 million in its Series A financing.
