Investment firm TCGX is expanding in Asia, raising $600 million to funnel into biotechs emerging from a burgeoning drug discovery hotspot.
TCGX has established itself as a major backer of Western biotechs in recent years. The California-based investor raised its first fund in 2021, securing $824 million for crossover and public investments. Across two later investment vehicles, TCGX brought its total haul up to $3.1 billion. TCGX invested the money in biotechs that went on to successful exits, through both buyouts and IPOs.
Now, TCGX is applying its playbook to Asia. The $600 million TCGX Asia Life Sciences Fund I will operate separately from, “but in close synergy with,” the investor’s Western investment vehicles. TCGX will invest the $600 million in Asian biotechs at various stages of development, expanding into a region that has become a cornerstone of global drug discovery amid the blossoming of innovation in China.
“Asia has become an increasingly important source of globally competitive biotechnology innovation,” Chen Yu, M.D., TCGX’s managing partner, said in a statement. “We believe there is a significant opportunity to partner with exceptional entrepreneurs and scientists across the region who are building companies capable of developing transformative medicines for patients worldwide.”
TCGX is expanding its operations to Asia in connection with the fund, opening offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Dandan Dong, who was chief business officer at ArriVent Biopharma before joining TCGX in 2024, will oversee the activities as the managing partner of TCGX in Asia.
The investor’s goal is to partner with the most promising biotechs in the region and use its experience, expertise and network “to help them realize their potential on a global scale,” Dong said.
TCGX has a track record in the West to back up its pitch to biotechs. The investor delivered back-to-back wins in late 2023, when Big Pharma companies picked up two of its portfolio companies. Within a few weeks, Roche bought Carmot Therapeutics for $2.7 billion and Bristol Myers Squibb paid $4.1 billion for RayzeBio. Last year, Novartis bought Tourmaline Bio, another TCGX portfolio company, for $1.4 billion.
Other TCGX-backed biotechs have gone public. ADARx Pharmaceuticals took that path last month, raising $446 million in an IPO about three years after TCGX co-led a $200 million investment in the siRNA biotech.
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