Vietnam biotech firm Gene Solutions set to raise US$70 million to chase big dreams in the region
[HO CHI MINH CITY] Vietnamese biotech company Gene Solutions is poised to raise some US$70 million in Series C funding soon, with a share sale planned in two years.
This is part of its effort to broaden the scope of its solutions and increase its market share in the region, the company said.
Gene Solutions, which claims to be Vietnam’s biggest gene-testing firm, was founded by three Vietnamese scientists in 2017.
The firm already operates in Asean’s “Big Five” economies – Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines – with the setting-up of diagnostic labs and collaborations with leading hospital chains there.
Gene Solutions has also reduced the cost of genetic screening for expectant mothers in Vietnam by roughly five times to US$60, the firm’s co-founder and deputy chief officer Nguyen Huu Nguyen told The Business Times.
Similar tests in Singapore, Germany or the US often cost five to 10 times more without insurance coverage – a prohibitively expensive price tag when compared to the firm’s own flagship non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT), he added.
For that reason, he believes the biotech firm has a good chance of shaking up the region’s booming healthcare industry, where ballooning costs are deterring many from seeking the care they need.
“We decided to develop genetic tests to make precision medicine more approachable in the emerging regional healthcare market, especially with the support of advanced technologies,” said Giang Hoa, co-founder and R&D co-head at Gene Solutions.
Gene Solutions has so far raised US$40 million via three funding rounds. Its flagship NIPT product – a blood test to screen genetic abnormalities in the foetus – is the market leader in Vietnam with an 80 per cent market share, according to the two co-founders.
Given the test’s affordability and 99 per cent sensitivity rate, Gene Solutions is aiming to capture half of the region’s market share by 2029.
Vietnam’s healthcare biotech scene is buzzing and has been identified as one of the sectors to propel the country’s future sustainable growth. Health tech investments, specifically in precision medicine, in the region are also revolutionising patient care and treatment, fuelling Gene Solutions’ push to expand.
“We are committed to ongoing fundraising efforts and re-investing in our core strength in research and development (R&D),” said Nguyen. “Our focus extends beyond reproductive health to areas like oncology, which offer endless opportunities for scaling up revenue and creating substantial value for the global healthcare industry.”
Chris Freund, founder and managing partner at Mekong Capital, said that this felt overly ambitious, given that only a handful of US companies were conducting clinical trials for tests dedicated to early cancer detection, and those companies were already valued at billions of dollars.
“However, after two and a half years, the successes of Gene Solutions were beyond our expectations,” he noted. Mekong Capital has ploughed a total of US$36 million into Gene Solutions since 2021.
Gene Solutions now has a portfolio of more than 30 genetic-testing products in the fields of obstetrics, paediatrics and oncology.
Owing to advancements in gene sequencing and data analytics, genetic testing has been extensively used for precision medicine in developed countries for over 10 years. These tests are able to detect diseases earlier and more accurately than conventional methods, potentially improving survival rates and offering cost-effective, personalised, and timely treatment options.
Gene Solutions’ founders had observed first-hand the flourishing demand for such solutions in high-income countries including the US. They were eager to offer access to these solutions to less-developed nations, starting with their home base, at a time when precision medicine was not part of the healthcare system.
“We developed the technology with a vision of affordability from the start,” said Hoa. While clinical studies in the West were both costly and lengthy, Gene Solutions managed to save time and costs, thanks to the prevailing “centralised healthcare system” in many countries in the region, he added.
The company also managed to develop proprietary algorithms on large-scale datasets to improve disease interpretation and prediction.
Gene Solutions is now eager to turn Vietnam – and other parts of South-east Asia – into a hub for advanced medical treatment and healthcare services. On this front, the company is setting up a new cancer research centre in Vietnam with an emphasis on novel technologies such as immunotherapy.
