Singapore’s RVAC Medicines Raises $140 Million for mRNA Ambitions

RVAC Medicines, a young mRNA company based in Singapore, has announced the completion of its Series B financing round, bringing its total funds raised to $140 million since its inception in June 2021. 

RVAC was incubated in Singapore by CBC Group, an Asia-focused healthcare investment firm. The company’s Series B was led by CBC Group, and was joined by Temasek’s Pavilion Capital, EDBI, a Singapore-based global investor, and GS Holdings, a South Korean business group. 

The proceeds will go into preclinical and clinical development of the company’s mRNA vaccine and therapeutic programs as well as the building of R&D centers and manufacturing capabilities. RVAC’s expansion plans include a new R&D center in Singapore and production plants in Singapore and China, to complement existing R&D facilities in Boston and Shanghai.

The expansion is expected to add over 100 jobs in Singapore, and help bring mRNA-based vaccines and products closer to emerging markets, especially those in Southeast Asia. 

Related Article: Pheast Gets a $76 Million Series A to Feed Pipeline of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine

RVAC is currently developing an mRNA vaccine against COVID-19. The company’s CEO Sean Fu is confident that the investment will speed up development of a multivalent candidate that could protect recipients against future variants of the virus. 

The funding could also help further mRNA innovations for other infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and cancers, Fu added. 

RVAC’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate is said to be safe and efficacious in preclinical studies, and is expected to enter human trials in Q3 2022. The company has an ongoing partnership with Vancouver-based Acuitas Therapeutics, whose lipid nanoparticle delivery system played a role in Pfizer-BioNTech’s highly successful mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty. 

CBC Group Closes Fund V to Tackle Larger Deals

This month, RVAC incubator CBC Group’s Healthcare Fund V closed at $1.67 billion, bringing the total assets managed by the investor to around $5 billion. 

The size of the fund allows CNC Group to pursue larger deals. This could broaden the scope of the firm’s recent investments in Asia, which include Japanese pharma Jadeite Medicines, RVAC, Korean medical aesthetics company Hugel Inc., and Yaneng Biosciences and Takeda’s cardiovascular arm in China.

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Joy Lin

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