The small nucleic acid drug market is on the verge of an explosion. Upstream equipment and consumables supplier "Juhai Hengchuang" has completed tens of millions of yuan in financing | First published by 36Kr

Text by | Hu Xiangyun

Edited by | Hai Ruojing

36Kr learned that Hangzhou Juhai Hengchuang Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Juhai Hengchuang") has completed a new round of financing of tens of millions of yuan. This round of financing was led by Qihang Investment, followed by Hangzhou Fulin Investment, Hangzhou Runmiao Fund, and old shareholder Taiyu Investment. Yiran Capital served as the financial advisor. The funds raised in this round will be used for the R & D of new products such as nucleic acid drug equipment and supporting consumables, as well as the expansion of overseas markets.

Juhai Hengchuang is a platform - type enterprise in the upstream field of nucleic acid synthesis, which can provide a full range of products for nucleic acid synthesis, including equipment, reagents, consumables, raw materials, and process development. Wu Guangxi, the founder and CEO of the company, once worked at Bioautomation, a global leading nucleic acid synthesizer manufacturer, and has nearly 20 years of experience in this field.

In recent years, with the continuous increase in the enthusiasm of domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies for the R & D of small nucleic acid drugs, the nucleic acid industry has entered the drug - making period from the stage of traditionally serving basic research and molecular diagnosis. As of 2025, about 20 small nucleic acid drugs have been approved globally. The successful commercialization of star products such as Novartis' long - acting "lipid - lowering injection" inclisiran sodium injection, as well as the frequent mergers, acquisitions, or BD transactions worth billions of dollars in the past two years, have not only injected stronger liquidity into the industrial chain but also gradually extended the capital's attention from downstream drug R & D to upstream equipment, consumables, and raw material links.

In 2017, in the early stage of Juhai Hengchuang's entrepreneurship, the company mainly focused on small supporting equipment for nucleic acid synthesis and then gradually expanded to core equipment in the nucleic acid synthesis chain, such as nucleic acid synthesizers. "Currently, we believe that small nucleic acid drugs have become the biggest growth point in the nucleic acid market. So, since 2023, we have been focusing on the R & D and production of equipment and consumables related to nucleic acid drugs, as well as the development of overall process methods. Subsequent team building and product layout will also revolve around this," Wu Guangxi introduced.

Image source: Juhai Hengchuang

It is understood that in the fields of scientific research and testing, domestic nucleic acid synthesis equipment has "basically been able to replace overseas equipment". However, in the field of large - scale production of nucleic acid drugs, due to higher requirements for production capacity, compliance, and processes, there is still a certain gap between domestic equipment and imported equipment.

For example, in traditional scenarios, nucleic acid synthesis equipment pursues synthesis efficiency and flexibility. In addition to these, drug - grade equipment must also support the "scale - up" from gram - level to kilogram - level and meet the regulatory requirements of regulatory agencies. This means that domestic equipment not only needs to solve the problems of synthesis efficiency and production capacity scale - up at the physical level but also needs to build a complete process verification system and data compliance ability to enter the core production chain of pharmaceutical companies.

Wu Guangxi mentioned that currently, the nucleic acid drugs approved globally are mainly developed by overseas pharmaceutical companies, and imported equipment accounts for a major share in the nucleic acid drug production market. The domestic nucleic acid drug industry is still in its early stage, and the demand for production capacity layout is continuously increasing, which also provides new opportunities for domestic solution providers.

"In terms of parameter indicators alone, I think the gap between some domestic nucleic acid synthesis equipment and imported products is not large. But the core challenge currently faced by domestic enterprises is how to find drug pipelines willing to let us 'accompany them in the process' and let the equipment complete verification in actual production. This is also the current effort direction of Juhai Hengchuang. At present, some of our equipment has become the main models for nucleic acid drug enterprises in the R & D stage, which is a good start," Wu Guangxi said.

In terms of product R & D and iteration, Juhai Hengchuang focuses on automated and intelligent solutions for nucleic acid synthesis. Wu Guangxi believes that the production efficiency of nucleic acid synthesis is severely limited by the types of equipment, supporting capabilities, and the operator's experience. Therefore, automation and intelligence are an inevitable trend.

It is also reported that Juhai Hengchuang began to expand overseas in 2022 and has won a certain market share in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and other regions with its own technological advantages. In some countries, 'we helped customers build the first nucleic acid production line from scratch'. The company's overseas business revenue increased significantly last year.