Denovo Biopharma Nabs Nearly 300 Million Yuan in Series D

San Diego-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical firm Denovo Biopharma has closed nearly 300 million yuan ($46 million) in a Series D round of financing jointly led by CICC Capital’s sub-fund CICC Qide and returning investor Yingke PE, the investee said in a WeChat post on December 11.

The latest round was joined by a clutch of investors including state- backed CR Pharma’s healthcare fund, private equity firm Silicon Paradise Asset Management Group, Fang Fund Partners and others. Existing investors Sangel Capital, Hosencare Brothers, Zheshang and Industrial Integration, also re-upped in the round.

Denovo will use the proceeds to expedite its pipeline products and list new drugs, the company said.

The firm had raised 590 million yuan ($83 million) in a Series C round of financing led by CICC Capital’s equity investment fund in June this year.

In October 2019, Denovo had also secured 300 million yuan ($46 million) in a Series B round of financing from Sangel Capital, and Guangzhou Yuexiu Holding’s investment arm Yuexiu Industrial Fund, among others.

Denovo Biopharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that applies novel biomarker approaches to re-evaluate medicines that have failed in broad patient populations. The company seeks to discover genomic biomarkers correlated with patients' responses to drug candidates retrospectively. Denovo then designs and executes efficient clinical trials in targeted patient populations to optimize the probability of a successful trial. 

Denovo is enrolling patients in the U.S. and China with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in a Phase 3 clinical trial and will start a Phase 3 trial in Glioblastoma (GBM) for its lead product candidate, DB102 (enzastaurin), which was in-licensed from Eli Lilly. The company has six additional late-stage programs targeting major unmet needs: DB103 (pomaglumetad methionil) for schizophrenia, DB104 (liafensine) for depression, DB105 (formerly ORM-12741) for Alzheimer's Disease, DB106 (vosaroxin) for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), DB107 (formerly Toca 511 and Toca FC) for recurrent high grade glioma, and DB108 (endostatin) for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).