Aptbio measures out $28.3m

Aptbio, a China-based mass spectrometry drug screening spinout of Chinese Academy of Sciences, has closed a RMB200m ($28.3m) round co-led by venture firm Luxin Venture Capital and state-owned VC unit Wuxi New District Investment Group, China Money Network reported yesterday.
Founded in 2004, Aptbio offers precision medicine, biomedical characterisation and target identification services based on a mass spectrometry technology that examines protein molecules and molecule-to-molecule interactions.
Aptbio’s form of mass spectrometry, dubbed parallel reaction monitoring, is billed as particularly capable of tumour drug screening. The spinout’s strategic partners include biomedical equipment suppliers Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waters and SCIEX.
The funding is intended for further technology development to support drug design contracts and Aptbio’s expansion across China and into foreign markets.
China Money Network estimates just 1% to 2% of the Chinese medical chemical detection market is served by mass spectrometry at present, compared with 15% in the US.
Aptbio is a spinout of CAS-owned research institute Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences. The company does not appear to have disclosed funding previously.