Deals and Financings

Cirina, a Hong Kong cancer diagnostics company, will merge with GRAIL, a Menlo Park startup, which is also developing non-invasive early-stage molecular cancer diagnostics (see story). GRAIL is a spin-out from Illumina (NSDQ: ILMN) that has raised an impressive $1re capital. The merger combines GRAIL’s deep pockets, which will fund large-scale clinical trials, with one of the scientific leaders in the fiel billion in ventud, Dennis Lo, DM, DPhil, a co-founder of Cirina. He is joined by other co-founders of Cirina, Rossa Chiu and Allen Chan at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and lead investor, Decheng Capital. 

LYFE Capital, a life science investment firm, closed LYFE Capital Fund II with $420 million in capital, consisting of $289 million and another RMB 900 million ($131 million) committed (see story). LYFE II was oversubscribed: its original target was $230 million and RMB 800 million. The new fund will continue the firm’s strategy, which focuses on equity transactions in China healthcare, starting at early growth stage. This includes companies in the pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics, animal health, healthcare services and digital health sectors. LYFE has offices in Shanghai, Hong Kong and, recently, Palo Alto, California. 

The Shenzhen International Institute of Biological Research signed a memorandum of understanding with Israeli pharma Zion Medical to develop two drug candidates in China (see story). Zion said the value of the deal was $440 million. Details of the MOU are not known, though some investment in Zion, a virtual company, is included, and probably SIIBR will contribute early-stage drug development on the candidates, a strong suit of the institute. One of the molecules is a cancer treatment, the other a cure for AIDS/HIV with a novel mechanism. Both molecules were discovered at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem by Prof. Abraham Loyter and in-licensed by Zion. 

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