On April 22, the Sino Biopharm Leading (Shanghai) Private Investment Fund (hereinafter referred to as the "Sino Biopharm Leading Fund") was unveiled and established in the Pudong New Area. This is a major initiative by Sino Biopharm to invest in, empower, and cultivate innovation, following its commitment to comprehensive innovation and the achievement of leapfrog innovative development. With the unveiling of the fund, Sino Biopharm officially begins its role transformation from an "innovation leader" to an "innovation investor".

Wu Jincheng, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Municipal Government, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Pudong New Area Committee, and District Mayor of Pudong New Area; Xu Lai, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Pudong New Area Committee and Deputy Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Pudong New Area Government; Lu Wen, Vice President of Shanghai State-owned Capital Investment Co., Ltd.; and the Chief Executive Officer of Sino Biopharm attended the ceremony. Pudong Venture Capital Group and Sino Biopharm signed agreements with fund partners including SDIC Xiandao, Fortera Capital, and Hangzhou Cobetter, and also signed agreements with industry partners such as LaNova Medicines, InventisBio, and Insilico Medicine.

From "Leader of Innovation" to "Investor in Innovation"

Xu Lai pointed out that biomedicine is a core track in the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and it is a "place of strategic importance" for the country to achieve high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement. The Sino Biopharm Leading Fund, jointly initiated and established by Pudong Venture Capital and Sino Biopharm, is both a key measure to implement municipal and district strategic deployments and an important practice in advancing Chinese-style modernization. Regarding the future cooperation of the fund, she expressed three hopes: first, to deepen the fund's function of linking investment with business attraction. Second, to leverage its role in nurturing the biopharmaceutical industry. Third, to practice the long-term investment philosophy of patient capital. Pudong New Area will continue to build platforms, integrate resources, optimize services, and attract talent, and will formulate various policies and measures to support the high-quality development of the biopharmaceutical industry, ensuring that "good projects do not lack land, good industries do not lack space, and good companies do not lack funding".

Eric Tse said: "Sino Biopharm, in partnership with Pudong Venture Capital Group, has initiated the Sino Biopharm Leading Fund to build an innovative paradigm of "state-owned capital guidance + industry leader empowerment". It aims to precisely align with the development plans of the biopharmaceutical industry in Shanghai and Pudong New Area, and use patient capital to activate the vitality of original innovation".

Eric Tse stated that during the investment evaluation phase, we will focus on cutting-edge targets and key links in the industrial chain to further supplement and strengthen the chain. In the industry cultivation phase, we will vigorously accelerate the efficiency and success rate of converting the R&D innovations of portfolio companies into industrial applications. At the same time, the fund will leverage Shanghai's advantages as a global resource allocation hub and an international financial center to build a transnational R&D collaboration network and accelerate the cultivation of leading enterprises with global competitiveness. In the future, with the Sino Biopharm Leading Fund as a link and Pudong as a strategic fulcrum, we will continue to gather global innovation resources to fully support Pudong New Area in building a world-class biopharmaceutical industry highland.

Building an Innovative Paradigm of "State-Owned Capital Guidance + Industry Leader Empowerment"

As one of Shanghai's three leading industries, biomedicine has always been the core driving force for Pudong New Area to accelerate the development of new quality productive forces. After 35 years of development and opening up, Pudong has become one of the regions in China with the most complete biopharmaceutical industry chain, the best ecosystem, the highest concentration of talent, and the most active innovation. In 2024, the scale of Pudong's biopharmaceutical industry reached RMB 410 billion.

In recent years, Pudong New Area has strengthened the linkage between the city and the district, focusing on supplementing, solidifying, and strengthening key links in the biopharmaceutical industry chain. It has promoted deep cooperation between Pudong's state-owned venture capital and a group of industry leaders, continuously leveraging its role in nurturing the biopharmaceutical industry. The Sino Biopharm Leading Fund is another industry fund initiated and established by the Pilot Zone Industrial Development Fund. It has a target total size of RMB 1 billion and a first closing of RMB 500 million. Pudong Capital, a subsidiary of Pudong Venture Capital Group, serves as the fund manager. The first-closing investors include Pudong Venture Capital Group, Sino Biopharm, Fortera Capital, and Hangzhou Cobetter. After its establishment, the fund will focus on serving the biopharmaceutical industry, accurately and efficiently addressing the industry's pain points of "difficult financing, long cycles, and high risks", and promoting the industry's development towards high-end, international, and clustered models.

According to its investment strategy, the Sino Biopharm Leading Fund will focus on investing in growth-stage innovative biopharmaceutical companies, empowering them throughout the entire process, including R&D, production, and sales. In the future, Pudong Venture Capital Group and Sino Biopharm will focus on integrating high-quality factor resources through market-oriented methods, cultivating a group of leading enterprises with global competitiveness, promoting the high-quality development of the biopharmaceutical industry, and introducing new momentum to the construction of Pudong's modern industrial system.

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Source: Pudong Release