Focusing on the research and development of hydroxyapatite microspheres, "Lingtong New Materials" has obtained several million yuan in angel round financing | 36Kr exclusively reports.

Written by Zhang Zhuoqian

Edited by Yuan Silai

36Kr has learned that Suzhou Lingtong High-tech New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Lingtong New Materials") announced the completion of a several-million-yuan angel round of financing. The investor in this round is Nan Hui Venture Capital. The financing funds are mainly used for the construction of the pilot production line.

"Lingtong New Materials" was established in 2024. It is a company focused on the research and development of hydroxyapatite microspheres. It has independently developed a microsphere reaction technology that breaks through the technical limitations of the foreign industry. The products are mainly used for pharmaceutical purification and high-end consumables for medical implants. The main customers at this stage are pharmaceutical manufacturers, and in the future, beauty product and medical aesthetic injection manufacturers.

At present, purified microspheres are mainly divided into organic microspheres and inorganic microspheres. The hydroxyapatite microspheres developed by "Lingtong New Materials" belong to inorganic microspheres. Compared with organic microspheres, hydroxyapatite microspheres themselves have two functional groups, namely phosphate ions and calcium ions, and have a better effect on the purification of antibodies and recombinant proteins.

"Lingtong New Materials" told 36Kr that hydroxyapatite microspheres. Currently, the hydroxyapatite used for the separation and purification of biological macromolecules in the market is mainly produced by several foreign companies such as Bio-Rad, GE Healthcare, Pall, and Tosoh. The price of domestic hydroxyapatite is less than one-tenth or even one-hundredth of that of imported hydroxyapatite, and the separation effect is poor and the protein loading is low, and it is basically not suitable for the separation and purification of biological macromolecules with high precision requirements. Therefore, the separation medium of domestic pharmaceutical enterprises is mainly imported.

The more commonly used product series of hydroxyapatite at present are CHT I and CHT II, with a diameter of about 40 um. These two types of microspheres have slightly different pore sizes, and the most important is that the sintering temperature in production is different. Currently, "Lingtong New Materials" is developing CHT III and microspheres added to medical aesthetic injection agents.

"Lingtong New Materials" has developed a unique mass production process with independent intellectual property rights to prepare microspheres with different morphologies. It uses a continuous and orderly explosive nucleation technology to directionally synthesize uniform and stable hydroxyapatite nanocrystals. Different from other emulsion methods, "Lingtong New Materials" uses a unique formula combined with a microemulsion interface regulation and induction assembly technology to synthesize hydroxyapatite powder with a multi-level solid porous structure. At the same time, through the control of the densification process conditions, the controllable design of the internal structure of the product is realized, showing more advantageous performance in terms of porosity, specific surface area, and pressure resistance. In terms of compressive strength, it can withstand a pressure of up to 10 Mpa, and the product also has a high degree of consistency.

Hydroxyapatite Microspheres

"Lingtong New Materials" currently has a 10-kilogram single-kettle pilot line, and next, it is going to build a 500-kilogram single-kettle mass production line. Currently, multiple series of products have been introduced to the market and have been verified and recognized by downstream customers. In the future, "Lingtong New Materials" also plans to develop high-performance nano-functional materials for the medical industry.

In terms of the team, the proportion of R & D personnel in "Lingtong New Materials" is more than 70%, and the core members mainly come from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Research Institute and technical and senior management talents from well-known enterprises in the pharmaceutical industry, with more than 20 years of experience in the research of nanostructured inorganic functional material microspheres.

Investor's View:

Nan Hui Venture Capital stated, "This project was introduced and incubated by the Suzhou Innovation Research Institute of Nanjing University. The application field of hydroxyapatite microspheres is very wide, and many emerging markets are continuously emerging, with great market potential. It is a necessary product in industries such as pharmaceutical purification and high-end consumables for medical implants. Due to the accumulation of production and patent protection of processing technology by foreign manufacturers, it is still dominated by foreign giants. Lingtong New Materials innovatively found a production process that breaks the foreign patent restrictions. At present, its products have passed the verification of downstream customers. With the completion of the mass production line, we believe that in the future, domestic hydroxyapatite microspheres will become the main force in the market."