ACEA Biosciences, Inc., a privately held drug discovery and scientific instrumentation company, announced today that it has closed a new round of venture funding in the amount of $30 million. The funding was provided by Lilly Asia Ventures and Qiming Venture Partners.
Over the past few years, ACEA has developed a strong clinical pipeline, including AC010, a third generation EGFR inhibitor, which is under Phase 1 clinical trials for use in the treatment of non-small cell lung carcinoma in China and the US. ACEA also has a new kinase inhibitor, AC058, being developed for the treatment of Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. AC058 has recently been submitted to the U.S. FDA for approval in a Phase I clinical trial. Moreover, ACEA is pursuing the development of other pipeline assets such as AC001, an innovative anticancer compound which has successfully completed Phase 1 trial in China.
In addition to its clinical assets, ACEA's scientific instrument business continues to grow at high double digit rates. ACEA's patented cell analysis technologies are being used to interrogate the effects of drugs on target cells in life science research and drug discovery laboratories around the world. The technology is also being employed in early cancer immunotherapy studies, where an understanding of cell-cell interactions is critical for optimizing patient treatments. In fact, ACEA's cell analysis technology has been instrumental to the development of its current clinical pipeline, and validates the tremendous value of the technology in discovery research for the greater benefit of pharmaceutical development and ultimately patient care.
'The new round financing provided by two premiere venture capital funds validates the rapid progress of our clinical pipeline, as well as our leading edge approach to drug discovery,' stated Dr. Xiao Xu, President and CEO of ACEA. 'With this round of financing, ACEA is well-positioned to develop our leading clinical compounds, AC010 and AC058. We believe these compounds have great potential to provide tremendous value in large markets with significant unmet need. We look forward to working with Lilly Asia and Qiming as partners now, and in years to come.'
'Coupled with the high growth in revenue from our existing instrument business, this round of financing will help drive our clinical research plans, as well as support our investment in manufacturing infrastructure in China,' commented by Dr. Xiaobo Wang, Vice President and CTO of ACEA. 'In addition, this financing will support rapid expansion and global commercialization efforts in our instrument business.'
'We are excited to form our partnership with ACEA,' said Dr. Yi Shi, Managing Director of Lilly Asia Ventures. 'ACEA is developing transforming biomedical and pharmaceutical products, and we are pleased to be able to support the company as they offer their innovative solutions to the global market'.
'ACEA is a rapidly growing company with great potential in both its pharmaceutical business and instrument business,' said Ms. Nisa Leung, Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners. 'We look forward to working with ACEA to build a substantial biotech company.'
About ACEA Biosciences
Founded in 2002, ACEA Biosciences, Inc. (ACEA) is a privately owned biotechnology company with headquarters in San Diego, California, and with world-class manufacturing operations in Hangzhou, China. ACEA pioneers in development and commercialization of innovative cell analysis instrumentation for life sciences, and is also engaged in drug discovery and pharmaceutical development. ACEA's xCELLigence® impedance-based, label-free, real-time cell analysis systems and NovoCyte™ benchtop flow cytometers are used in preclinical drug discovery and development, toxicology, safety pharmacology, disease studies, and basic academic research. More than 1,700 of these instruments have been placed globally, leading to >700 peer reviewed publications from both academia and the pharmaceutical industry in diverse applications spanning everything from cancer immunotherapy and cardiotoxicity to chemotactic migration and GPCR inhibition. With the xCELLigence and NovoCyte technology platforms now well established, ACEA continues to work closely with scientists around the world to bring new innovative solutions to the R&D and health care industries.
About Lilly Asia Ventures
Lilly Asia Ventures, founded in 2008, is dedicated to venture capital investments in the life sciences and healthcare sectors in Asia, particularly in China. Its investors include Eli Lilly & Co., a Fortune 500 company and one of the most globalized and innovative pharmaceutical companies in the world. As a leading biomedical venture fund in China, Lilly Asia Ventures provides wise capital, industry expertise, and global resources to its portfolio companies to accelerate their growth.
About Qiming Venture Partners
Qiming Venture Partners is a leading venture capital firm in China with offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Suzhou and Seattle. Founded in February 2006, Qiming currently manages seven funds with $1.7 Billion USD in assets and focuses on early to growth stage investments in Internet and Consumer (Intersumer), Healthcare, Information Technology, and Cleantech industries. Qiming's 30 partners and investment professionals who all have strong operational experience and successful investment track records add a great deal of value to the portfolio companies. Qiming has invested in over 150 companies and many of them have gone IPO or mergers and acquisitions. Qiming has established a great reputation and strives to be the top investment partner by the Chinese entrepreneurs.