The financing was led by Youshan Capital and co-led by China Growth Capital. Participants included CICC Qide Fund under CICC Capital, V Star Capital, Langmafeng Venture Capital, Deyi Capital, China Everbright Limited, Xiaochi Capital, Guoke Jiahe, and Pudong Investment Holdings. Existing investors Lanting Investment and Cowin Capital also increased their investments.
Proceeds were intended to support global Phase III trials of supaglutide, advance several other leading pipeline programs, and develop a cGMP manufacturing site.
Founded in 2015, Innogen is a technology- and innovation-driven pharmaceutical research, development and manufacturing enterprise with an international outlook, focused on biological medicines for diabetes and metabolic disease. Its management team brings together Chinese and international diabetes and endocrinology specialists, experienced drug developers and business operators.
The company has a genetically engineered recombinant-protein platform for biological-medicine development and production, as well as multiple new diabetes and metabolic-disease medicines and technologies with global intellectual property. The article describes its translational diabetes research as internationally advanced.
Views from the company and investors
Professor Qinghua Wang, Innogen's Chairman and CEO, said efsubaglutide alfa was China's first independently developed human, long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist and that its Phase III trials were progressing well. He said the financing would accelerate the trials, expand the team and advance further diabetes and metabolic-disease programs. He invited talented researchers, manufacturing professionals and commercial specialists to join Innogen. The company's goal, he said, was to give people with diabetes access to innovative medicines with better safety, clinical outcomes and value.
Youshan Capital partner Lin Xiao said the firm was pleased to lead the financing. He described its focus on strong companies in healthcare, technology and other specialist sectors, particularly healthcare technologies and products that address unmet clinical needs. He said Innogen had deep expertise in diabetes and metabolic disease, a commitment to original innovation, and a pipeline with leading-product potential, making it a prominent domestic platform company in the field. He looked forward to helping accelerate clinical development and international expansion so the products could benefit patients in China and worldwide.
China Growth Capital partner Xiong Weiming said the firm was excited to co-lead the round and optimistic about the new generation of GLP-1 diabetes medicines represented by efsubaglutide alfa. He said the firm had already seen advantages over existing products and expected the molecule to become a leading medicine in its field. He congratulated Professor Wang and the team on completing an oversubscribed round in a challenging capital-market environment and hoped the Phase III program would proceed smoothly, reach its endpoints soon and benefit Chinese patients with diabetes.
Efsubaglutide alfa: an approach to diabetes symptoms and underlying mechanisms
Citing WHO data, the article states that approximately 415 million people worldwide had diabetes, including more than 130 million in China, the largest national population with the disease. It reports that diabetes prevalence in China had risen from an average of 0.67% to 12.8%, and projects that, with changing lifestyles and an ageing population, prevalence would remain at 11%–12% over the following decade.
Professor Wang had previously argued that treatments such as injected insulin and oral glucose-lowering medicines addressed symptoms without tackling the underlying cause, which he described as inadequate insulin secretion by pancreatic beta cells. He said efsubaglutide alfa could promote insulin secretion, beta-cell regeneration and beta-cell quality, potentially addressing both manifestations and underlying mechanisms. He also noted that, compared with mature developed markets, purchasing power in China was limited. He argued that China needed differentiated glucose-lowering medicines with strong clinical effects and good value: effective medicines that ordinary people could afford.
The article describes efsubaglutide alfa as authorised by China's regulator to enter clinical development with injections every one to two weeks. It claims greater human sequence similarity and clinical applicability than comparable imported preparations, a broad safety window, favourable efficacy and cost advantages from local production.
The article states that US and European diabetes treatment guidance had placed GLP-1 receptor agonists among first-line injectable therapies, with a corresponding expert consensus in China. It presents efsubaglutide alfa as a new-generation human, long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist with substantial market potential, says the company planned global commercialisation, and anticipates that it would become China's first domestically developed human, long-acting GLP-1 medicine in a next-generation diabetes market with sales measured in tens of billions.
Development ambitions in the original report
The original report specifically identifies advancing several first-in-class pipeline programs as a use of the financing. Youshan Capital’s Lin Xiao describes a pipeline with both first-in-class and best-in-class potential; China Growth Capital’s Xiong Weiming also expresses an expectation that efsubaglutide alfa will become best in class. These are the company’s and investors’ development ambitions and assessments at the time of the report.