I-Bridge Capital, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm and incubator founded by an ex-partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), has established a joint venture with Israeli drug company BioLineRx Ltd. to incubate innovative healthcare start-ups.
The joint venture, named iPharma, will seek to develop innovative clinical and pre-clinical therapeutic projects originating primarily in Israel to serve the Chinese and global healthcare markets.
Each partner is to provide seed capital of US$1 million to the venture.
"The market in China is large and fast-growing, but it lacks innovative therapeutic assets and capabilities which address the increasing demands of our rapidly aging population," says Dr. Jimmy Wei, managing partner and founder of I-Bridge Capital, previously at KPCB for four years, in a statement.
Israel-based BioLineRx will screen and identify promising early-stage drug candidates, primarily from Israel, that fit the needs of the Chinese population.
These therapeutic candidates will then be in-licensed by iPharma for further development and commercialization in and outside China.
After a critical mass of in-licensed projects is reached, iPharma plans to raise additional funds from Chinese investors to accelerate further development activities.
Each partner is protected from dilution for a five-year period and the first project is expected to join iPharma's pipeline within the next few months.
"We are very pleased to enter into this joint venture with I-Bridge because it offers us direct access to the large, fast growing and highly important Chinese market, with limited financial risk," said Philip A. Serlin, chief financial and operating officer of BioLineRx.