WuXi to create $200m investment fund following initial success

By Zachary Brennan

- Last updated on GMT

WuXi to create $200m investment fund following initial success
The almost-private China-based CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organization) WuXi is looking to reap larger rewards from investing in US and China pharma and biotech firms.

The new $200m venture fund, known as WuXi Healthcare Ventures II and outlined in a SEC filing​, will be four times as large as a previous $50m fund that has already made gains for the busy company.

With an initial focus on technology and life-science companies, the first WuXi fund from 2011, as of December 31, 2014, made $36.1m in investments, including $32.5m for biopharma companies and industry funds of $3.6m. WuXi says it has already “realized $23.6m in gains from three portfolio companies into which we had made $7m of investments​.”

Investment activities at the fund are overseen primarily by Edward Hu, CFO and Chief Investment Officer, with the assistance of a group of investment professionals and Ge Li, Chairman, CEO and Founder of WuXi, the company said in a SEC filing​.

In addition to providing favorable investment returns, our corporate venture fund has allowed us to monitor developments in the life-sciences industry and has provided opportunities for us to successfully market our services to a range of potential customers. Many of our portfolio companies have used WuXi’s drug discovery and development services​,” the company said.

The opportunity for outside investments comes as the company is investing internally too. Last week, WuXi announced it raised $80m for its small molecule manufacturing subsidiary​, which offers intermediates and APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) for clients. The company has also begun construction on what is expected to be the largest mammalian cell culture manufacturing site​ in the world and will be complete by 2017.

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