A joint venture co-founded by China-headquartered Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine has provided $100m to an oncology startup named Hengrui Therapeutics.

HR Bio Holdings, a joint venture between pharmaceutical company Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine (JHM) and an undisclosed “blue chip” investment firm, invested $100m yesterday to launch a US-based cancer therapy startup called Hengrui Therapeutics (HTI).

Publicly-listed JHM bills itself as China’s largest ethical pharmaceutical company and operates across the areas of oncology, endocrinology, cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, surgical products and imaging agents.

HTI will look to develop and commercialise cancer treatments and will use the funding to support clinical trials for…