Asia Major: Investors back CN Bio’s $21m Series B first close

Beijing-based Bayland Capital and founding shareholder CN Innovations Holdings Ltd from Hong Kong are to invest $10m and $5.5m, respectively. Other serial backers have reinvested.

The new money will enable CN Bio to expand product development and scale the organisation across key global markets to meet increased demand for Organ-on-a-Chip (OOC) solutions.

CN Bio is a leading provider of single- and multi-organ microphysiological systems. The global OOC market’s CAGR is estimated at 30.94 per cent. This growth has been accelerated, in part, by the need for biopharma companies to improve the efficiency and success rate of innovative drug R & D and recent legislative changes, such as the US FDA Modernization Act 2.0.

In response, CN Bio is delivering an ambitious expansion strategy to meet the increasing demand for its PhysioMimix® OOC technology and research services – and to provide deeper, clinically-relevant insights into early-stage preclinical drug discovery in a wider range of application areas, whilst reducing reliance on animal models.

Over the past year, this has included a series of high-profile appointments to expand the company’s leadership team in both the UK and US, new product launches and strategic industry collaborations.

Notably, in December, it was confirmed that PhysioMimix OOC and its associated NASH ‘in-a-box’ kit provided critical human-relevant compound efficacy data for Inipharm’s INI-822, supporting regulatory approval to initiate clinical testing for metabolic liver disease – a pivotal inflection point in CN Bio’s development as well as the broader industry.

With the latest fundraising, CN Bio is well-positioned to continue its global expansion to meet the evolving needs of customers worldwide in key markets including toxicology, drug pharmacology and metabolic diseases. With 80 per cent of clinical failures attributed to efficacy and toxicity issues, often derived from the poor predictiveness of animal and 2D cell culture models, the industry demand for OOC solutions in these areas is growing.

By expanding R & D in the space, CN Bio will enhance the depth and breadth of tools and applications available to optimise drug discovery and development workflows, enabling researchers to generate data with greater predictability, lower risks of late-stage failures, and accelerate time-to-market for a wide-range of novel therapeutics.

Dr Paul Brooks, CEO at CN Bio, said: “We are seeing pivotal growth across our industry, whereby drug developers are increasingly recognising the potential of OOC technology to augment, supplement and optimise their workflows.

“We have strategically positioned ourselves accordingly to respond to the market needs and are proud to have received recognition from our major shareholder, CN Innovations, and new institutional investors such as Bayland Capital, to drive this vision forward.

“The investment is a testament to our team’s hard work and dedication to best supporting our customers to bring drugs to patients more quickly, more cost-effectively, and through less animal experimentation.”

Yuexing Su, Founding Partner, Bayland Capital, commented: “OOC technology is an exciting market with compelling opportunity for growth. CN Bio has taken key steps to build a team with extensive industry expertise and robust networks across the industry, with a longstanding track record of success.

“We look forward to the continued success for the company as it further capitalises on this unique growth opportunity and delivers on its future expansion plans to remain at the cutting-edge of the field. We will leverage our networks and shareholders’ base to further support and cement the leading position of CN Bio in OOC development.”

Charles Chong, Managing Director, CN Innovations, added: “We are encouraged by CN Bio’s ongoing success and, in particular, the team’s achievements over the past years, during which conditions have been difficult in the broader economy.

“In this time, key milestones have been met, not just for the Company, but also the wider industry – including CN Bio providing critical human-relevant compound efficacy data to support the FDA’s approval for Inipharm’s Phase 1 clinical trial for metabolic liver disease.

“We are pleased to be supporting CN Bio again as it looks ahead and strengthens its future growth plans, of which, expanding its product portfolio in markets that hold huge impact for the industry, such as metabolic disease modelling and toxicology, will be key.”