Drug Farm Closes $56M Financing, Developing First-in-Class Drugs for HBV

(VCBeat) Feb. 9, 2021 -- Drug Farm today closed its $56 million financing. The company plans to use the funds to conduct clinical trials of the DF-006. The drug is the company's own first-in-class oral drug for the treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and other liver diseases. The funds raised will also enable the company to advance the development of its other pipelines for cancer and autoimmune diseases. The investors who participated in the latest round include BVCF, WuXi AppTec Venture Capital, South China Venture Capital, DT Capital Partners, and Zhejiang United Investment Group.

Dr. Xu Tian, founder and chairman of Drug Farm, said: "Since its (the company's) inception, we successfully using piggyBac transposon and the methods of forward genetics to found many targets for the discovery of first-in-class drugs, and contact with specific diseases. Combining with the self-developed artificial intelligence neural networks, we rapidly developed first-in-class drugs on the basis of these targets. Hepatitis B is one of our key areas of focus."

"With this funding, we look forward to moving forward with the clinical development of the first drug, DF-006 for hepatitis B in 2021," said Dr. Lichenstein, CEO and director of Drug Farm.

"DF-006 is designed to clear the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) or cccDNA in hepatitis B virus, which would represent a real breakthrough in hepatitis B therapy," said Dr. Su Lizan, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Drug Farm. Dr. Su is also chair of the Department of Virology, Pathology and Cancer at the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. "This is an exciting new approach to treating chronic hepatitis B infection through a novel mechanism that modulates the body's innate immunity," he added.

BVCF was founded in 2005 as China's first US dollar fund that focuses on life sciences and healthcare. In the past decade, BVCF invested in nearly 30 companies, has US$400 million under management; and offered co-investment opportunities with a combined value of over US$600 million. 

BVCF's investments span across China and the U.S., covering a wide spectrum of highly promising subfields including healthcare services, innovative biologics, in-vitro diagnostics (molecular diagnostics), high-value medical equipment and consumables, and medical big data and mobile medicine.

SCVC was founded in March 2008. It is a private equity investment fund managers as the main business of professional investment management organization. SCVC mainly invests in the Chinese economy in the rapid growth and expansion stage or the Pre-IPO stage of the outstanding potential of the enterprise, the key investment areas for medical care, consumer upgrades, high-end equipment, energy-saving and environmental protection industry, and other industries.