BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

CAR T bet in China

Why China's BVCF made a rare early stage bet on CARsgen's CAR T program

December 15, 2014 8:00 AM UTC

BVCF typically invests in later-stage healthcare plays in China, but the PE firm's Zhi Yang said BVCF went out of its comfort zone by investing in a series A round in new cancer immunotherapy play CARsgen because the opportunity "was too good to pass by."

The Shanghai biotech is developing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies for solid tumors. The lead program, KJgpc3-001, is slated to enter the clinic next year for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)...