Akasuo Biotech Raises RMB 20 Million in Angel Round | Led by Oasis Capital

Akso Biotechnology recently completed a RMB 20 million angel round, exclusively invested by Oasis Capital. The proceeds will be used for technology R&D and talent acquisition.

Jiang Tao, founder and CEO of Akso, stated: "Oasis Capital focuses on the commercialization and industrialization of cutting-edge core technologies. In a rapidly changing market, they excel at identifying and concentrating on the tremendous energy behind technology — this aligns very closely with our founding team's philosophy."

Microspheres — spherical particles at the micron or nanometer scale — are widely used in biopharmaceuticals due to their unique size, structure, and properties. They serve as purification materials for separating and purifying monoclonal antibodies, fusion proteins, vaccines, insulin, peptides, and other biologics (directly determining drug purity and quality, as well as representing a major production cost), or as drug delivery vehicles for controlled release, enabling longer and more stable release cycles.

As China's biopharmaceutical industry has expanded in scale in recent years, demand for pharmaceutical microspheres has grown accordingly. However, high-performance microsphere preparation technology carries high barriers and has long been dominated by Japan and the United States. Science and Technology Daily once listed microspheres among 35 "chokehold" technologies. In response, multiple government departments jointly issued the Pharmaceutical Industry Development Planning Guide, explicitly calling for prioritized development of high-end formulations including microspheres, as well as industrialization technologies for such formulations.

Akso Biotechnology focuses on R&D and production of high-end microsphere products. According to company co-founder Bao Xiaofan, microspheres produced through traditional preparation methods may lack uniformity, with broad particle size distributions; for drug-loaded microspheres, there may be room to improve drug loading capacity and achieve more uniform micro-scale release profiles, limiting their applications.

Akso differentiates itself through a novel 3D microfluidics technology that enables gentle generation of monodisperse microspheres. "For example, traditional agarose填料 typically achieves CV values of 30–50%, while microfluidic methods can control CV below 10%. Meanwhile, the company's proprietary 3D stacking technology can scale microfluidic chip production capacity by hundreds of thousands of times, meeting mass manufacturing requirements."

From a technical perspective, "microfluidics" manipulates two or several immiscible fluids in micro- and nano-scale channels, enabling continuous, controllable preparation of emulsions or droplets with excellent monodispersity and controlled particle size and morphology. Solidifying these droplets yields microspheres suitable for bioanalysis or drug delivery applications.

Regarding market prospects, Bao Xiaofan noted that the company is currently exploring two major application directions: purification填料 and controlled-release drug formulations. Beyond the core logic of rapid domestic biopharmaceutical industry development, there is also a wave of import substitution driven by pandemic and geopolitical factors, suggesting sustained high growth ahead. He revealed that the company has completed its technology储备 and expects to produce pilot samples in both directions within this year; it will also explore additional directions for expansion.

In the purification填料 segment, data shows that purification materials can account for 80% of total production costs in new drug R&D. According to the prospectus of domestic microsphere materials company NanoMicro, the global chromatography填料 market will reach $3 billion by 2024, with continued growth and increasing domestic share. Beyond Akso, representative companies in this space include NanoMicro and Sepax Technologies.

As for controlled-release formulations, these are primarily used for biologics. Currently 239 protein and peptide drugs have been approved, representing 52% of the global prescription drug market and becoming one of the "main forces" in new drug development. Microspheres represent the longest-acting injectable formulation with the broadest applicability. In microsphere formulations, drugs are encapsulated in particles tens of microns in diameter that can pass through injection needles, then administered subcutaneously or intramuscularly to release drugs slowly. Typically a single injection can sustain drug release from one week to several months, achieving stable release, improved efficacy, and better patient compliance.

Traditional methods for producing sustained-release microsphere formulations include emulsion solvent evaporation and spray drying, though several technical challenges remain to be solved, such as improving drug encapsulation efficiency, enhancing particle size uniformity, and reducing drug loss. Consequently, despite growing demand for long-acting injectable peptide/protein drugs and large-molecule protein drugs, long-acting sustained-release microspheres remain difficult to popularize. Bao Xiaofan pointed out that unlike traditional methods, Akso's 3D microfluidic chip technology can overcome these three key limitations.

To date, the FDA has approved more than ten microsphere formulations, each generating over $1 billion in global sales, while domestically only a handful of localized products exist — for instance, Livzon Pharmaceutical Group, Luye Pharma, and Boannte's generic versions of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company's leuprorelin microsphere. China's microsphere formulation market will continue rapid growth, with projections showing it reaching RMB 11.61 billion by 2024 at a 20% CAGR.

Akso Biotechnology was founded in 2021 by three Tsinghua University alumni from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Biomedical Engineering: Chen Jiake, Jiang Tao, and Bao Xiaofan. The company currently has an R&D team of more than ten people, with continued expansion underway.

Source: 36Kr

Vitality

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Vitality has multiple dimensions. No enterprise develops without setbacks — there will always be challenges and difficulties. It is the powerful vitality demonstrated in adversity that reveals the value of a founding team, and enables growth through hardship. Moats built in adversity will be wider and deeper.

— Jiang Tao, Founder and CEO of Akso

Oasis Capital is a new-generation venture capital firm in China, dedicated to discovering the most vital entrepreneurs of the next decade and growing alongside them to create long-term value. "Vitality" is Oasis's vision and mission. This vitality represents both the direction of structural transformation in our era and the resilience and evolutionary power of entrepreneurs. Oasis Capital focuses on early and growth-stage investments, with individual investments ranging from $3 million to $30 million, concentrating on technology-enabled services in healthcare, enterprise services, and other sectors, supporting China's technology-driven new service upgrade.