Recently, Beijing CytoNiche Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "CytoNiche"), which focuses on innovative 3D cell technology, announced the completion of nearly 300 million yuan of Series B financing. This series of financing was jointly led by Gaorong Capital, CICC Qide Fund and CICC Qiyuan National Emerging Industry Venture Investment Guidance Fund under CICC Capital. Sinovac, Sinopharm Zhongsheng, Hongtai Fund, Aibo Qingshi, Yuanhui Capital, Yijing Capital co-invested with other investment institutions. The Series A investors，Bencao Capital, Detong Capital, and an international well-known life science industry group continued to subscribe.

The financing funds will be used for R & D upgrading, expanding the production capacity of core products, enriching the product line and intelligent overall solutions, expanding international business and CDMO business, etc.

CytoNiche was launched by the research team of Professor Du Yanan from Tsinghua University School of Medicine in 2018. The company focuses on creating an original 3D cell "smart manufacturing" platform, and provides overall solutions for the large-scale customized amplification process of cells based on 3D microcarrier, so as to address the pain points in the development of the global cell industry.

As biopharmaceuticals enter the era of CGT (cellular and gene therapy), cell drugs have led the third drug revolution after small molecule drugs and protein and nucleic acid drugs. At the same time, the industry puts forward new requirements for large-scale cell preparation and production process.

The core product, 3D TableTrix® Microcarrier Tablet (Microcarrier), is independently developed by CytoNiche, and it is also the first pharmaceutical excipient microcarrier that is applicable to the cell drug development. As a porous microsphere, its chemical and physical properties are precise and controllable, and the customized design of cell microenvironment is available according to the cell type; it can achieve 100% cell harvest rate through the unique lysis technology; it meets the relevant requirements of GMP, has certificate of analysis from the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control and other relevant authorities, and has obtained the qualification for pharmaceutical excipients from FDA DMF and China National Medical Products Administration (DMF#: 35481; CDE approval registration number: F20210000003, F20210000496).

Based on 3D microcarrier cell culture technology, CytoNiche further develops fully automated and large-scale 3D FloTrix® cell preparation process system. It includes cell culture bioreactor, automated instruments and equipment for cell washing and harvesting and exosome enrichment, as well as reagents and consumables such as stem cell culture medium and cell exosome preparation. The system can complete the whole process from cell inoculation, cell expansion, stepwise scale-up, gentle harvest, washing and concentration to formulation dispensing, thus enables fully closed, large-scale, intelligent production and preparation of cell therapy products, cell derivatives, viruses, and proteins. Compared with traditional artificial 2D cell culture, CytoNiche 3D cell large-scale "smart manufacturing" system can help customers save about 90% of production space, 90% of labor force, 60% of reagents and consumables, and 60% of time cost.

The products and services of CytoNiche can be widely used in the upstream process development of gene and cell therapy, extracellular vesicles, vaccines, and protein products. At the same time, it also has broad application prospects in the fields of regenerative medicine, organoids, and food technology (cell cultured meat, etc.).

Among them, in the field of industrial chains such as vaccine, antibody drugs, virus production, the core products of CytoNiche Biology are becoming a key original accessories that break international monopoly, replacing industrial optimization and upgrading, and cell culture and viral production.

In the blue ocean markets such as gene and cell therapy and regenerative medicine, the microcarrier developed by CytoNiche is the world's first commercial product with the qualification of pharmaceutical excipients and can meet the needs of clinical applications in the field of cell therapy. The overall solution is in a leading position in the world.

Up to now, CytoNiche has served hundreds of industry leading customers in the fields of stem cells, vaccines, gene therapy and immunotherapy, and has reached strategic cooperation agreements with a number of medical institutions, research institutes and universities. At the beginning of 2022, the company's GMP production platform has been expanded to 4000 square meters and a new 1200L microcarrier production line has been built; The R & D and transformation platform have been expanded to 5000 square meters, including more than 1000 square meters of CDMO platform.

Professor Du Dinghua of Tsinghua University, Chief Scientist of CytoNiche, said, “It is the right time for the global cell industry. Thanks for the help of new and old shareholders, CytoNiche will continue to speed up its dream of building a modern "3D cell intelligent manufacturing factory, and will surely live up to the opportunities of the times and the full support of all parties.”

Liu Wei, Co-founder, and CEO of CytoNiche, said, "We are at a critical moment of realizing the industrialization of CytoNiche core technology. Thanks for the support and recognition of old and new shareholders! We can see that today, the industrialization in the global cell industry is facing challenges such as cell preparation scale-up, cost and consistency. CytoNiche looks forward to seizing the industrial opportunities, continuously developing the Chinese original products of world-class quality, solving the practical problems in the industry, striving to become a core enterprise in cell drug industry and in the production and preparation supply chain of derivative biological products, and actively promoting the upgrading of cell intelligent manufacturing."

For the future development goal, Liu Wei pointed out that, "After achieving large-scale and customized cell culture, our next goal is to realize truly automated, intelligent and even unmanned production and preparation process. In the future, we hope to combine advanced AI, big data, industrial automation, and other technologies to drive the cell industry into the industrial 4.0 era together with other industrial partners.”

Yang Kun, the partner of Gaorong Capital, said, "Today, the development of cell industry is no longer a choice, but a requirement. As a leader in the upstream manufacturing field of the cell industry, CytoNiche, based on its core technologies, whole process solutions and a deep understanding of market demand, has helped bring novel, high-quality solutions to innovative vaccines, novel cell, and gene therapy, and also promoted the continuous development of 3D cell culture. We look forward that the products and technologies developed by CytoNiche will be applied in more life science fields and more market regions, providing high-quality ‘soil’ of cells for the industry."

Liang Ying, Managing Director of CICC capital, said, "CytoNiche’s technology originates from the independent research and development of famous universities in China. It is a typical case of transformation of scientific research achievements in the field of life sciences in the new era. Less than four years since its establishment, the company has achieved large-scale sales, and the excellent execution ability of the team is impressive. Recently, the company's 3D cell culture technology has gradually shown great application potential in the fields of vaccine production, cell drugs, exosome preparation and so on, and has been recognized by a number of benchmark customers. We firmly believe that CytoNiche can achieve the grand goal of building independent and controllable system in the upstream of biopharmaceutical industry! “

Yang Yue, Managing Director of CICC capital, said, "We are very pleased to see that with its core technology, CytoNiche has built a complete product system with 3D cell microcarrier as the core, provided innovative, large-scale cell preparation solutions for leading customers in various fields, and gradually grew into a leader in the upstream of the industry. As a national guidance fund, we have always focused on the field of life sciences as a strategic emerging industry. We look forward to the excellent start-ups such as CytoNiche to continue to promote the progress of the biomedical industry and lead the high-quality development of the industry driven by key core technologies."

Wang Nan, Vice President, and Chief Financial Officer of Sinovac, said, “The vaccine industrial chain covers a wide range of processes, but each link is essential to the quality and safety of the vaccine. As an upstream enterprise in the vaccine industrial chain, CytoNiche has developed many core products which are of great significance to the vaccine, antibody drugs, and virus production. This time, Sinovac cooperated with CytoNiche and signed a framework agreement on relevant products. It will further promote the development of the vaccine upstream industrial chain and help to upgrade China's vaccine industry. "

Zhou Xuan, Executive Partner of Sinopharm Zhongsheng Fund and Managing Director of Jianyi Capital, said, "CytoNiche is based on the world's leading and independently innovative pharmaceutical excipient microcarrier technology, and provides an overall solution for the large-scale customized amplification process of cells. At present, CytoNiche has launched overall solutions for stem cells and exosomes, including equipment, reagent, and consumables. We also look forward to CytoNiche to further apply the microcarrier technology to more fields, providing more solutions for the production of vaccines, cell cultured meat, oncolytic viruses, and other products. We also look forward to more partners joining in the innovative development of products with microcarrier technology as the core, helping enterprises bring their products to the market faster and at lower cost. We also look forward to CytoNiche can take microcarrier technology as the guide, moving from China towards the world and becoming a global leader in cell culture solutions.

Dr. Ye Xiaoli, Executive Director of Hongtai Fund, said: "Cell and gene therapy has become an important choice for clinical treatment of diseases. The production process is crucial to the" cost reduction and efficiency improving "of cell gene therapy products. The process upgrading and independent control of upstream key equipment and consumables are becoming increasingly important. With profound expertise in the field of 3D microcarrier cell culture technology, CytoNiche has made international and domestic breakthroughs in key equipment and consumables, providing innovative solutions for large-scale, intelligent, and customized cell culture, while significantly reducing costs. We are very pleased to see that CytoNiche team boasts strong innovation capability and continuously improves industrial layout, which have been recognized by benchmark customers and many partners. We look forward to CytoNiche to face and solve the problems and challenges encountered in industrialization with industrial partners through continuous R & D and innovation, so as to contribute to the long-term and healthy development of the industry."