Clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company AskGene Pharma Inc. announced the completion of a $20 million Series A financing round led by Qiming Venture Partners and TF Capital that will be used to advance the company’s therapeutic pipeline and prodrug platform.
AskGene, which specializes in immunotherapies for cancers and autoimmune diseases, is dual based in Camarillo and Nanjing, China.
“This is an exciting time for our company,” Jeff Lu, AskGene’s chief executive, said in a statement. “We are advancing several potentially first-in-class or best-in-class molecules from our SmartKine platform to preclinical development and clinical development later this year.”
Lu added that two AskGene clinical programs are progressing and that the company looks forward to results from multiple clinical programs later this year and next year.
“Cancer is still one of the major disease burdens for patients and IO (Intraosseous infusion) has demonstrated its effectiveness,” William Hu, managing partner of Qiming Venture Partners, said in a statement. Qiming is a Chinese venture capital firm with offices in China and the U.S. It currently manages 10 U.S.dollar-based funds and has more than $6.2 billion in assets under management.
“AskGene’s team shows deep understanding in IO and protein engineering. We believe their proprietary platform continues to generate more pipelines to clinic and market,” Hu added.
