CHINA – Cullgen, Inc., a San Diego, CA and Shangai, China-based biotechnology company developing small molecule therapeutics based on its proprietary uSMITE™ platform of targeted protein degradation technology, raised $40m in funding.
A $35m series C financing round was led by AstraZeneca-CICC Venture Capital Partnership (“AZ-CICC”), and included Sincere Capital, Voyagers Capital, Wuxi Capital Group (subject to pending ODI approval), as well as existing shareholder GNI Group Ltd. In conjunction with the series C round, AZ-CICC will have the right to designate a representative to join Cullgen’s board of directors. Concurrent with this financing, GNI Group Ltd. has elected to exercise its outstanding warrants for Cullgen stock, resulting in an additional $5m in proceeds for Cullgen. The total $40m financing will support the development of the company’s technology platform and internal pipeline of targeted protein degraders in oncology and other diseases.Led by Dr. Ying Luo, Chairman and CEO, Cullgen is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of first-in-class new chemical entities (NCEs) for the treatment of diseases lacking effective therapeutic approaches. The company applies its proprietary uSMITE™ (ubiquitin-mediated, small molecule -induced target elimination) platform to expand the drug design paradigm beyond functional site inhibition, enabling the targeting of historically “undruggable” proteins for selective destruction. Leveraging years of work by its founders on the proteasome system and key discoveries regarding its functionality, Cullgen has generated multiple highly potent, selective, and bioavailable targeted protein degrader compounds that utilize proprietary novel E3 ligands.08/04/2023
