Leading global sovereign and technology investors from Ireland, Singapore, US and China back its data strategy to expand the reach and power of the leading global platform in genomics
Major investments in Ireland aim to create the world’s premier genomic and medical dataset, uniquely powered to accelerate drug discovery and deliver meaningful benefits of precision medicine to global patients
WuXi NextCODE, the emerging global standard platform for genomic data, today announced the successful completion of a $200 million Series C financing.
The company completed the Series C round financing with investment from a consortium led by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), which has invested $70 million in this round and was the lead shareholder in Genomics Medicine Ireland (GMI). GMI was recently acquired by WuXi NextCODE as its Irish subsidiary and business headquarters in Europe, as part of a $400 million investment program positioning Ireland as a global leader in precision medicine and advanced life sciences. Other participants in the Ireland initiative and Series C financing include WuXi NextCODE’s longtime existing shareholders Temasek, Yunfeng Capital and Sequoia Capital. This financing round follows the completion of the company’s $240 million Series B in September 2017.
“Turning the genome into a tool for better health for everyone is at heart a data challenge,” said Dr. Ge Li, chairman of WuXi NextCODE. “Just as we have enabled partners in US, in China and elsewhere, we are building in Ireland fully certified large-scale sequencing facilities integrated with our GOR database, discovery and interpretation capabilities, and strengthening our genomics and data platform with global standard. It will accelerate drug discovery and deliver meaningful benefits of precision medicine to patients in Ireland first, and eventually to people worldwide. That is our mission, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work to realize it in Ireland.”
“The success of this financing round is an endorsement of our strategy to create the leading global platform for using the genome to improve the lives of people and patients everywhere,” said Rob Brainin, CEO of WuXi NextCODE. “This phase of our growth has a distinctly Irish focus to it, and we are creating in Ireland the world’s premier genome dataset as a uniquely powerful engine both for transforming how we discover new drugs, as well as for bringing new diagnostics, risk screens and other tools and services to the individual patients. With an investor base now too as global as our mission, we are more excited than ever to answer the confidence of our partners and participants with transformational results.”
“Through our investment in WuXi NextCODE we have been able to bring to Ireland many of the world’s biggest and most successful investors in innovation,” said Paul Saunders, Senior Investment Director at ISIF. “We have positioned GMI to play a leading role in realizing precision medicine not just in Ireland but at the European and global levels, driven by WuXi NextCODE’s renowned informatics, analytics, and track record in population-scale genomics worldwide. This is one of ISIF’s most significant investments to date in an innovation enterprise, and through it we are not only driving high-value employment and economic development, but also putting Ireland at the heart of an exciting global life sciences opportunity that we are proud to be a part of.”
WuXi NextCODE is focusing the proceeds from this round on rapidly expanding operations at GMI, and to accelerate the program to enroll and sequence the entire genome of some 400,000 people from across Ireland. This effort will position Ireland to play a leading role in the development and use of precision medicine. It aims to leverage a unique set of national characteristics — high-quality healthcare, relative genetic homogeneity, cutting-edge medical science and forward-looking policy and institutions — to innovate and deliver genome-driven improvements in health.
About WuXiNextCODE
WuXiNextCODE is an integrated global life sciences informatics company building the global standard platform for genomic data. With offices in Shanghai; Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Reykjavik, Iceland; and Dublin, we serve the leading population genomics, precision medicine, diagnostics and wellness initiatives and enterprises using the genome to improve health around the world. Our capabilities span study design, sequencing, secondary analysis, storage, interpretation, scalable analytics, and AI and deep learning – all backed by the most proven and widely used technology for organizing, mining and sharing genome sequence data. Visit us on the web at www.WuXiNextCODE.com.
Leave a Reply