BioEngine Raises Tens of Millions of Dollars in Series B Financing to Build an Ace Engine in Biopharmaceuticals

In August 2019, BioEngine, a leading domestic company focusing on the development and production of serum-free medium for animal cells in the biopharmaceutical field, announced the completion of a Series B financing round of tens of millions of RMB. This financing round is mainly used for capacity expansion, product line development, R&D iteration, and market expansion, and is exclusively invested by the National SME Development Fund managed by Orient Fuhai.

BioEngine was founded in December 2014 by Professor Tan Wensong of East China University of Science and Technology, and the founding team has thirty years of technical accumulation and application in the field of animal cell culture process and bioreactor engineering. Based on the talents of the animal cell and tissue engineering team of East China University of Science and Technology, the company has attracted many high-level talents including animal cell culture process experts from the University of Minnesota to join the company. The current R&D team of the company is more than 20 people, and the scientific research level is in line with international standards. At the same time, BioEngine also introduced professional talents in production management and brand promotion from well-known companies such as 3M and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in the U.S., injecting new strength in all aspects of R&D, production and operation, and making the team work more professionally and orderly.

Founder and Chairman of BioEngine

Through in-depth research and project implementation on the R&D and production of cell serum-free medium, optimization and amplification of large-scale high-density culture process of animal cells, and industrialization application of cell culture technology, BioEngine has successfully built the first fully automated, fully enclosed, low-temperature culture medium dry powder production line with an annual capacity of 10 million liters with an advanced international level in China. In 2017, BioEngine became the first and only company in China to obtain the ISO.13485:2016 quality management system certification from BSI (British Standards Institution). After more than four years of continuous exploration, we have successfully achieved full coverage of key technologies for animal cell culture, and have high-density cell culture production processes for various antibodies and vaccines.

With the solid scientific research strength and massive original culture medium formula library, BioEngine has developed AI serum-free medium design hardware and software based on high-throughput screening. This serum-free medium design tool can deliver personalized serum-free medium and related culture technology for biopharmaceutical companies, which can improve the development efficiency by 50% and has been recognized by national patents. Based on this technology, BioEngine provides biopharmaceutical companies with high-quality one-stop services from formulation design to dry media manufacturing.

The main products of the DrivingM® series are a variety of serum-free media with independent intellectual property rights developed for different cells such as blood cells, CHO, hybridoma, PK15, MDCK, MDBK, HEK293, BHK, Vero, and insect cells. Its production process complies with the ISO13485 quality system, which can support high-density culture and efficient expansion of cells, increase the certainty of cell culture, have better effect than other well-known medium products, easier purification, and downstream processing, effectively improve the safety and yield of cell products, while reducing the production cost by 1/3-1/2.

In the antibody field, BioEngine has served antibody manufacturers to build the first fusion protein drug production line with a cell density of 10 million and a reactor scale of 1,000 upgrades in China. In the field of vaccines, we have created the largest single production line of influenza vaccines based on the serum-free high-density suspension culture process of MDCK cells in China. In the field of cell therapy, the HIPP-T009 series of lymphocyte culture media developed by BioEngine independently has become the first true serum-free culture media released in China for high-density culture and maintenance of CAR-T cells and NK cells. Nowadays, we have served more than 50 companies in more than 20 provinces and cities in China obtained 2 new drug certificates, and 4 new veterinary drug certificates, declared more than 10 IND projects and provided more than 80 technical support and product services for the companies we serve.

BioEngine's four core business advantages

At present, under the development concept of "technology-led, service-driven, industry-oriented and future-oriented", BioEngine's technology services and products are mature. The entry of this round of capital will help BioEngine to further enhance its production capacity, build up core technology barriers, realize the deep excavation of high-end customers and the gradual penetration of production and R&D enterprises, and further realize the promotion and application of Bechtel's biotechnology and products nationwide!