HONG KONG, May 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ally Bridge Group, a global life science-focused investment group, today announced that it has led a $300 million financing completed for GRAIL, Inc., a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured.
"We are very impressed with the scientific, clinical, and software engineering achievements the team at GRAIL has made in just over two years. Our significant investment in GRAIL aligns very well with Ally Bridge's strong focus on investing in some of the world's most innovative life science technologies and enhancing value-creation across geographies," said Frank Yu, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ally Bridge Group. We are excited to support the company as it moves towards commercialization of its first product in Hong Kong and advances its product development programs globally. Our investment in GRAIL represents the most strategic transaction for Ally Bridge after initiating and completing the highly successful $3.3 billion take-private of Wuxi Pharmatech from NYSE in 2015," Frank Yu added.
"Ally Bridge played an instrumental role in GRAIL's $300 million Series C financing and we are excited to partner with the Ally Bridge team who have global life science expertise and a strong network in Asia," said Ken Drazan, President of GRAIL.
Ally Bridge's investment in Grail represents another successful collaboration with its strategic partner and portfolio company Wuxi Pharmatech and its affiliates. Another strategic partner of Ally Bridge's, Lifetech Scientific (HKSE:1302), also participated in the GRAIL investment through its joint venture with Ally Bridge, which was formed and announced in January 2018. Lifetech is a leading medtech company in China. "The GRAIL investment is the very first landmark for the Ally-Bridge-Lifetech joint venture, which focuses on investing in leading global life science technologies with a focus in Asia and, in particular, in China," said Frank Yu of Ally Bridge. "We are very excited to invest alongside Ally Bridge in GRAIL," said Yue-hui Xie, Chairman of Lifetech.
About Ally Bridge Group
Ally Bridge Group ("ABG"), founded and led by Frank Yu (previously at Goldman Sachs and Och-Ziff Capital), is a global healthcare-focused investment firm. ABG and its affiliates manage over US$2 billion in healthcare assets in China, the U.S., and Europe, from medtech to biopharmaceuticals. ABG focuses on investing in some of the world's most innovative medicines and leading high-impact transactions. In 2015, ABG initiated, led and completed the landmark US$3.3 billion NYSE take-private of Wuxi Pharmatech. ABG has expertise in cementing strategic partnerships between emerging healthcare companies and industry leaders, and across different geographies, particularly between the U.S., China and Europe. For more information, please visit www.ally-bridge.com.
About GRAIL
GRAIL is a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured. GRAIL is using the power of high-intensity sequencing, population-scale clinical studies, and state-of-the-art computer science and data science to enhance the scientific understanding of cancer biology, and to develop and commercialize pioneering products for the early detection of cancer. The company is located in Menlo Park, California and Hong Kong. It is supported by leading global investors and pharmaceutical, technology, and healthcare companies. For more information, please visit www.grail.com.
Contact
Andrew Pang
andrew.pang@ally-bridge.com
Principal,
852-3121 9699
Ally Bridge Group
