The immuno-oncology company – co-founded by Juno Therapeutics, a spinout of several institutions – is reportedly seeking $250m to $300m in a Hong Kong offering.
JW Therapeutics, the China-based cancer therapy developer launched by biopharmaceutical companies Juno Therapeutics and WuXi AppTec has filed for an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Caixin Global reported today.
Earlier reports suggested the company is targeting $200m to $300m in the offering, and the sponsors for it are Goldman Sachs and UBS.
Founded in 2016 as a joint venture between Juno Therapeutics and WuXi AppTec, JW is working on immuno-oncology drugs that utilise engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells.
JW has seven product candidates in its pipeline and said in June this year it had raised more than $200m altogether. Juno owns 26% of the company’s shares while WuXi AppTec holds a 14.2% stake.
The company completed a $100m series B round in June co-led by Citic CPE and financial services firm Mirae Asset and backed by Juno, WuXi AppTec and CR-CP Life Science Fund, a vehicle for conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group and the state-owned China Resources.
The round also featured Singaporean government-owned investment firm Temasek, investment manager Oriza Holdings, private equity firm Loyal Valley Capital and venture capital firms Sequoia Capital China and Arch Venture Partners.
JW had already secured $90m in an early 2018 series A round that included Juno Therapeutics, WuXi AppTec, Temasek, Sequoia Capital China, Oriza Seed Capital, YuanMing Capital, Yipu Capital and Avict Global Holdings.
Juno is a joint venture between Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre. The company raised $310m in series A and B funding in 2014, before going public that same year.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
