"Moreyoung Bio" Completes Nearly 100 Million Yuan Series B+ Financing to Accelerate the Development of Regenerative Medical Aesthetic Materials Such as Hydroxyapatite | 36Kr Exclusive
36Kr has learned that Moyang Bio has completed the Series B+ financing round, with the amount of this round reaching nearly 100 million yuan. This round of financing is jointly led by Boyuan Capital, SAIC Hengxu Capital, and Yanbei Capital, with the existing shareholder Jinding Capital continuing to increase its investment. The raised funds will be mainly used for the establishment of sales, marketing, medical, and brand teams, as well as the R&D investment in the next-generation products.
Moyang Bio was established in 2018, with modified hydroxyapatite material as the core, focusing on nano-medical biomaterials and the development and industrialization of absorbable Class III implant products. The company's founder, Lin Guangming, has been deeply engaged in the field of biomaterials for many years.
Hydroxyapatite is the main inorganic component of human and animal bones, and its more mature application is in the field of artificial bones. Only in recent years, with products such as "Scupltra" and "Sculptra" being approved by the NMPA one after another, the injectable medical aesthetics has gradually entered the era of "regenerative repair". Hydroxyapatite material is attracting the industry's attention due to its filling effect and ability to induce regeneration. At the same time, because it can "release calcium ions during the degradation process, stimulate collagen regeneration, and promote the elastic recovery of the surrounding epidermal tissue", it can achieve a more natural and youthful injection effect, and therefore, the industry has begun to explore its potential as a medical aesthetic filler material.
However, it is not easy to "apply a material originally used in hard tissues to soft tissues". In serious medical scenarios, most traditional artificial bone products made of hydroxyapatite have a loose and porous structure with a pore size range of 40 - 200 um. This structure can enable the material to induce autologous mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate into osteoblasts in the body, achieving the regeneration and healing of bone defect sites. But if it is directly used as a medical aesthetic filler, it may cause serious subcutaneous bone nodules and other problems.
In addition, because most traditional artificial bone products have a non-spherical and irregular structure, they cannot be effectively phagocytosed by autologous cells, resulting in problems such as a long degradation time and poor collagen induction ability.
Lin Guangming frankly said: "Around 2013, when we started to study this material, we found a large number of adverse events caused by illegal injections in the market." In order to ensure the safety of the product, Lin Guangming and his team spent nearly 4 to 5 years solving the problem of controllable degradation of hydroxyapatite, "This is also the most concerned issue of the regulatory department when the product is submitted for approval."
It is reported that based on the self-assembly technology for the preparation of mesoporous hydroxyapatite microspheres, Moyang Bio has achieved controllable degradation by regulating the morphology and structure of the microspheres, thereby customizing a facial rejuvenation soft tissue filler with a corresponding degradation cycle and regenerative stimulation ability according to the needs of patients.
"At present, the degradation time of our calcium hydroxyphosphate facial filler for injection is precisely controlled within about one year, with a variation of no more than one month. At the same time, in all animal experiments and more than 200 human clinical trials, this material has shown a significant stimulating ability and durability for type 1 and type 3 collagen; and the safety of the product has been verified in a 30-month follow-up. We expect to obtain the Class III medical device registration certificate at the beginning of next year and officially launch the product in the first half of the year," Lin Guangming said.
If the product is successfully approved, Moyang Bio will also obtain the first compliant Class III certificate for hydroxyapatite materials in the domestic medical aesthetic facial soft tissue injection filling field.
When it comes to the subsequent marketing plan for the core injection product, Lin Guangming said that in the future, Moyang Bio will simultaneously layout the B-end medical institutions and the C-end market for the general public. "Relatively speaking, we will focus more on the professional promotion in domestic and foreign hospitals and medical aesthetic institutions, with doctor education as the core, and it is expected that the number of doctors trained each year will be around 800; in the C-end, we will also layout new media channels, and cooperate with KOLs in the medical aesthetic field and hold high-end salon experiences, etc. However, a relatively strict screening may be conducted when choosing partners."
It is also understood that in addition to this Class III injection product, Moyang Bio's existing product portfolio also includes the "Magic Youth Bottle Series" products. Since its launch in the second half of last year, this series of products has generated sales of several million yuan.
In addition, in terms of going global, Lin Guangming said that "Moyang Bio has caught the east wind of 'Technology Going Global' of Chinese enterprises". The company is actively making compliance operation layouts in the European Union, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. The products have been recognized and expected by well-known overseas experts.