Deals and Financings

 C-Bridge Capital, a China private equity firm with a life science focus, closed its second fund, C-Bridge Healthcare Fund II, at its $400 million cap (see story). C-Bridge plans to invest in late-stage companies in the fields of bio-technology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and health care, particularly those with cross-border ambitions. C-Bridge is active in Asia-Pacific — especially China — the US and Israel. Its first healthcare fund closed in 2014 after raising $200 million. 

iKang Healthcare (KANG) will form an investment partnership with China Industrial Asset Management to build and/or buy more China clinics (see story). iKang operates a chain of private preventive healthcare clinics in China that cater to corporate clients. The partnership between the two companies will raise a fund of up to $74 million for the new clinics. iKang will operate the clinics for at least two years and then return the investment at a price of the original cost plus 15% per year. iKang said the fund will allow the company to expand at a reasonable cost. 

Cardinal Health (CAH), the second largest drug distributor in the US, is reported to be actively seeking a buyer for its China drug operations, with bids expected between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion, according to sources (see story). Shanghai Pharma, China Resources Pharma and Sinopharm are rumored to be suitors for Cardinal China, a significant PRC drug/device distributor. In 2010, Cardinal established a foothold in China with its $470 million purchase of Zuellig Pharma, a company that in-licensed China/Asia rights to western drugs. 

Geneseeq, a Nanjing-Toronto genetic sequencing company, closed a C funding round of “hundreds of millions of RMB,” according to the company (see story). Founded in 2008, Geneseeq focuses on genetic sequencing to provide personalized medicine for tumor related diseases. The company has a pan-genomic testing system that detects genetic abnormalities in 416 cancer-related genes. Each 100 million RMB would be worth $15 million, implying the funding totaled at least $30 million.