The incident of genetically edited babies immune to AIDS has aroused concern from all walks of life and criticism from professionals.On November 26, People's Daily Online reported that a pair of gene-edited twin babies had been born, and 34-year-old He Jiankui was in charge of the project.After the controversy arose, institutions such as Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen Harmonicare Women's and Children's Hospital, and the Third Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University successively claimed that they did not participate in the trial and distanced themselves from He Jiankui.
On November 28, He Jiankui appeared at the 2nd International Summit on Human Genome Editing at the University of Hong Kong and asked about the source of funding for the experiment. He said that the experiment started three years ago when he was a university professor and paid for the experiment with his own salary.The required medical expenses and a small part of gene sequencing expenses are paid by the school's scientific research funds.He stressed that none of the companies under his name provided funding, venues, people or equipment for the experiment.
He Jiankui founded two companies in addition to being engaged in gene editing research. According to public information, they received a total of 295 million yuan in private equity financing and 40 million yuan in government subsidies.Who is funding He Jiankui's company?Is He Jiankui's company really completely out of the picture?
He Jiankui and the Putian-affiliated institution Harmonicare
The two companies founded by He Jiankui are Shenzhen Yinhe Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yinhe Biotechnology), a tumor early screening company, and Shenzhen Hanhai Gene Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Hanhai Gene), a gene sequencer development company.
The investment institutions behind these two companies include Zhengwei Group.In July 2014, Hanhai Gene obtained the Pre-A round of investment from Amer Group and Tengye Venture Capital, with an undisclosed amount.On November 20, 2018, Synbiotech received RMB 50 million in Series A investment from Amer Group and Qianjiang Capital.
According to public information, Lin Zhitong is the president of Amer Group's medical division.He also holds 10% of the shares of Health Industry Investment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Amer Group, and the other 90% of the shares are held by Amer Group.
The enterprise information query tool Qichacha shows that Lin Zhitong also served as the general manager of Shenzhen Hemei Women and Children's Hospital and the director of Hanhai Gene.
Lin Zhitong also holds a 0.83% stake in the listed company Harmonicare Medical (1509.HK) and an 8% stake in Shenzhen Harmonicare Women and Children's Hospital.The hospital was previously reported to have undertaken a clinical trial of gene-edited babies, but the hospital quickly denied it, and Harmonicare Medical holds the remaining 92% of shares in Shenzhen Harmonicare Women's and Children's Hospital.
Harmonicare Medical is a private medical institution in Putian.According to the prospectus, the chairman, executive director and president of Harmonicare Medical is Lin Yuming, who holds 56.14% of the shares of Harmonicare. Lin Yuming's brothers Lin Yuguo, Lin Yurong, Lin Yuhua, and Lin Zhitong and other 18 people jointly invested in the offshore company Honeycare International Investment Limited (hereinafter referred to as Honeycare) holds a 25.48% stake in Harmonicare Medical.
There is no public information on whether Lin Zhitong belongs to the Lin family of the Putian family. It can be found that Lin Zhitong registered and established the offshore company Honeycare in August 2014, one year before Harmonicare went public, and ranked together with Lin Yuming's brother.Shareholder seats.
The investment institutions participating in Harmonicare Medical also include CDH Investment, which held a 30.75% stake in Harmonicare Medical at the time of IPO.In July 2015, Harmonicare Medical was listed on the Hong Kong stock market at a price of HK$6.6 per share. In November 2016, Taikang Insurance took over part of the shares held by CDH, CCB Capital, Honeycare and Lin Yuming at a price of HK$6.54 per share.About 200 million shares, accounting for 26.44% of the total share capital.At present, the share price of Harmonicare Medical is fluctuating around HK$2.2 per share.
