DEALS
Zhong Lun Advised on Gracell Bio's Equity Restructuring and $85 million Series B Financing
Zhong Lun Advised on Gracell Bio's Equity Restructuring and $85 million Series B Financing
Gracell Biotechnologies, Co., Ltd. (“Gracell") announced the closing of its $85 million series B financing on Feb. 22, 2019. The financing was led by Temasek with Lilly Asia Ventures, Kington Capital, King Star Capital, and Chengdu Miaoji also participating in the round. This new funding will enable Gracell to enter clinical trials with several of its next-generation immune cell gene therapy drug candidates.
Founded by Dr. Wei (William) Cao in 2017, Gracell is an innovative biomedical company focusing on the development of next-generation immune cell gene therapies. Dr. Cao was previously co-founder and CEO of a NASDAQ-listed cell therapy company. Gracell is committed to developing high-quality, low-cost cellular drugs and solving many of the technical difficulties in the cellular gene therapy field, including complex manufacture, lack of off-the-shelf products, and short duration efficacy. To implement its vision, Gracell believes it has gathered one of the top teams in the industry from China and the U.S. To date, Gracell has completed pre-clinical development of a series of low-cost CAR-T products and entered clinical research through Institutional Review Board (IRB) studies. Other products under development include CAR-T cell products developed on the company’s FasTTM CAR technology, Dual-CAR technology, Off-the-shelf CAR-T products, and CAR-T products for the treatment of refractory solid tumors.
Zhong Lun, as the legal counsel of Gracell, provided full scope of legal services in its financing, including the design of transaction structures, assisting in the constructing of the “Red-chip" and VIE structure, preparation of various transaction documents and participating in the negotiation and closing processes. The transaction was handled by Zhong Lun team led by Senior Partner Catherine Chen, and the team members include non-equity partner Shaun Gao, associates Edward Zhou and Yi’an Huang.
Professionals
-
-
Catherine F. CHEN
Equity Partner
ShanghaiPractices： Private Equity & Investment Funds,Hong Kong & Overseas Capital Markets,Chinese Mainland Capital MarketsIndustries： Real Estate,Transportation & Logistics,Tourism & Hospitality,Insurance,Telecommunications & Internet,Information & Intelligence Technology,Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences -
Catherine F. CHEN
Equity Partner
Shanghai
-
