NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Qiagen Translational Medicine Research in Suzhou, China (Qiagen Suzhou), has completed a Series A financing for RMB 175 million ($25.7 million).
Chinese venture capital firm Qiming Venture Partners led the round, with participation from New Horizon Capital, Quanchuang Capital, and Shanghai Anjie Medical Equipment Company, according to a report from China Money Network.
Qiagen Suzhou said in a statement yesterday that it will use the financing to construct a GMP-compliant plant, to manufacture and register molecular diagnostic products, for new hires and promotions, and to expand its sales channels.
Qiagen opened its Chinese translational medicine venture in 2013 in partnership with BioBay, a life sciences cluster in Suzhou Industrial Park. The company said at the time that the center would provide services and consulting featuring Qiagen technologies to international and Chinese pharmaceutical firms and research institutes, with an emphasis on biobanking, pharmacogenomics, and next-generation sequencing.
In its statement yesterday, Qiagen Suzhou said that one of the purposes of the new financing would be to commercialize molecular diagnostic products in the areas of targeted oncology and immunotherapy.
In May of this year, Qiagen and Chinese in vitro diagnostics firm Maccura Biotechnology announced a joint venture focused on commercializing Qiagen's GeneReader next-generation sequencing system in China and developing gene panels for the Chinese market.