With XQ Lin, Chairman and CEO, Esco Lifesciences Group
ZHOU Lihan, Co-founder & CEO, MiRXES
With proactive government policies, an ecosystem that fosters innovation, intellectual property rights protection, strong corporate-academia linkages in the field of research, the presence of multinational players and a robust vibrant entrepreneurial cluster, Singapore is considered a regional hub for life science-based innovation. The city-state has channelled nearly S$4 billion in public sector research funding towards the health and biomedical sciences domain, according to EDB Singapore data.
In this panel, we feature two Singapore-based life science companies MiRXES and Esco Lifesciences, who have raised big-ticket rounds this year, have drawn up global expansion plans and are reportedly exploring listing plans.
Singapore-based cancer diagnostics company MiRXES raised $77 million in Series C funding led by CR-CP Life Science Fund. Founded in 2014, MiRXES is a spin-off from Singapore’s AStar. MiRXES will use the proceeds to double its global talent pool to 400 over the next two years. MiRXES has operations in China, Japan and the US.
Singapore-based Esco Lifesciences closed an oversubscribed $200-million Series A and crossover round led by Vivo Capital and Novo Holdings. Esco is targeting strategic bolt-on M&As, an accelerated expansion in China and setting up an innovation hub in Boston. Esco is looking at building a global life sciences ecosystem between Singapore, the US and China, with Singapore as the focal nexus.
