Armed with $200 million funding led by Vivo Capital and Novo Holdings last month, Singapore’s Esco Lifesciences Group (ELG) is looking at an accelerated expansion in China, creation of an innovation hub in Boston, acquisition of Western technologies and bringing them to the Asian market, as well as pursuing an active M&A strategy.
“We are building a global life sciences ecosystem between Singapore, the US and China, with Singapore as the focal nexus,” ELG CEO Lin Xiangqian said in a video interview with DealStreetAsia from Shanghai.
“There’s a unique opportunity for us to bridge talent, technologies across the world, with a focus on the Chinese market and provide a platform to take some of these Chinese products global,” he added.
ELG was founded in 1978 by pharmacists Lim Lay Yew and Lim Yae Foong as a cleanroom technology company, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. Subsequently, their son Lin Xiangqian joined the family business and assumed the role of CEO in 2011. He has helped evolve the business through global market and product portfolio expansion and M&As.
Meanwhile, Lin, in a personal capacity, founded EVX Ventures in 2015 which seeks to create a bridge between Singapore, China and United States’ Boston, specialising in incubating and building biotech companies.
In June last year, Carmine Therapeutics, co-founded by Lin and incubated by EVX Ventures, clinched a $900-million deal with Takeda Pharmaceutical to collaborate on the development and sale of non-viral gene therapies targeted at two rare diseases.
Alongside Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF), EVX Ventures had also recently co-led the $24-million Series A round for homegrown biotech startup Nuevocor that develops gene therapies for cardiomyopathies.
Edited excerpts of the interview:-
