It is reported that the model animal supplier "Saiye Bio" recently completed a RMB 285 million B round of financing, and the investors are China Merchants Zhiyuan, Guangfa Qianhe, Guangfa Xinde and Guanghua Venture Capital.
As the saying goes, people always mention "guinea pigs doing experiments", which is a popular impression of model animals. Commonly used model animals include mice, rats, dogs, and monkeys, which generate value in drug development. In the development of drugs, it is necessary to verify drug metabolism, effectiveness and toxicity, and a large number of animal experiments are required before they are clinically used in humans, which requires the use of model animals.
In order to improve detection capabilities, technology iterations based on gene editing tools can be used to build animal models based on etiology, so customized gene knockout mice have also gained market increments.
Founded in the United States in 2006, Saiye Bio was established in the United States in 2011 to build a model animal production base in Taicang City, Suzhou, with Suzhou company, Guangzhou company and multiple offices in China. Its model animal platform can construct more than 10,000 gene knockout rat and transgenic rat models every year, and the cumulative number of academic citations exceeds 3,500. Customers are life science research institutions, clinical research institutions, CROs, pharmaceutical manufacturers and biotechnology companies worldwide.
In 2017, the company's self-developed AlphaKnockout gene targeting expert system achieved the optimal scheme design based on artificial intelligence for the first time; in July of the same year, it launched a resource library of 10,000 CRISPR-AI knockout mice, and has established more than 6800 cases of total knockout and conditional knockout frozen sperm lines and more than 300 live mouse strains.
In addition, Saiye Bio has also extended the industrial chain to cell products and services, provided scientific research stem cell libraries, and independently developed more than 100 kinds of stem cells, primary cell products and culture media.
This round of funds will be mainly used to complete the construction of facilities with a total area of more than 40,000 square meters in central China, north China, south China and southwest China this year; expand the business scope and enrich the genetic engineering rat resource library to serve the drug research and development and screening in the direction of cancer immunity, endocrinology, cardiovascular, neurological and infectious diseases; establish an artificial intelligence gene big data platform; and expand the market layout in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Model animals are not an emerging market, and the star companies in the industry are Saiye Biology, Nanmo Biology, Renyuan Xinsheng and so on. Among them, Nanmo Bio and Saiye Bio are companies with a long history and have more than ten years of experience.
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