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by Richard Daverman, PhD
ChinaBio Today



Fund Focused on Biomedical Companies in China

BioVeda Capital, a Singapore-based venture capital firm, announced that Lilly Asia Ventures has made a $10 million investment into the BioVeda China fund. BioVeda China is the first international venture capital fund dedicated to making life science investments in China.

BioVeda China will seek to identify companies that can become future industry leaders, transforming them into next-generation multinationals. Lilly Asia Ventures is a newly formed subsidiary of Lilly Ventures, the well-established venture capital arm of giant pharma Lilly (LLY).

BioVeda China, based in Shanghai, was originally formed in 2005. At its outset, the fund projected a final size of $30 million. The fund was looking for companies that offered late-stage opportunities with exits available in two to three years. Previous investors include IFC (the venture capital arm of the World Bank), HBM Bioventure, Temasek and Shanghai Pudong Government.

The parameters of the fund have grown dramatically since then. BioVeda reports that BioVeda China has made $120 million worth of investments in six companies. Investments include biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, biomaterials, bio-fuels, medical technologies, hospital/healthcare services, environmental products and services and agriculture products.

In its earlier funds, before becoming interested exclusively in China, BioVeda invested $30 million in 13 companies located in the US, China, Singapore and the UK, often with an Asian component to the investment. Many of the companies are NASDAQ-listed biotechs, such as Memory (MEMY) and Dynavax (DVAX). In the case of Memory, the investment supported the establishment of a subsidiary in Singapore. Other companies, still private, were located in Singapore (MerLion Pharma and NeuroVision) and China (NOD Pharmaceuticals).

According to a 2002/2003 survey by Venture Reporter, BioVeda was the only Asia-based member of the “Top 25” Biotech VC funds in the US.

For its part, Lilly is very committed to R&D in China. It has partnered with Shanghai ChemExplorer to develop chemical pharmaceuticals, and in 2005, its largest non-US collection of researchers was located in China.


Source: ChinaBioToday.com



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