Viva Star Biosciences recently announced that it has completed a Series A financing round of tens of millions of USD. The funds raised will be used to rapidly advance the IND filing and clinical trials of the company's world-first new drug program, accelerate product pipeline layout and implementation, and further improve the R&D team and build key technology platforms. Viva Star Biosciences is located in Suzhou Industrial Park Biomedical Industrial Park, incubated by Morningside Ventures and Dr. Hongjian Zhang, and has received strong support from well-known institutional and individual investors, such as Crowdshare Investment, Morningside One Investment, LIXIN Capital and Juming Ventures.

Viva Star Biosciences is dedicated to the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative therapies for age-related debilitating diseases caused by inflammation and tissue fibrosis, including interstitial nephrogenic fibrosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, systemic sclerosis and others. Our R&D focuses on myofibroblast activation pathways in the process of extracellular matrix production and tissue fibrosis, and on First-in-Class targets in key signaling pathways, with a focus on translational medicine research and an emphasis on the linkages between immunometabolism, inflammation, fibrosis and cell death, to improve and enhance the therapeutic efficacy of monotherapy or combination therapies.

Myofibroblasts have a "two-sided" biological function. Under normal conditions, myofibroblasts are essential for wound healing, participating in and mediating the repair and remodeling of tissues (or organs) after trauma. . The signaling pathways (or molecular mechanisms) involved in myofibroblast activation are diverse and complex, among which transforming growth factors, pattern recognition receptors, pro-inflammatory factors, lipid metabolism, etc. are particularly important; while the intersection of environment (microparticles, viral infection, etc.), age and epigenetic regulation of genes are important pathogenic factors in the aging population. Riju Bio will uphold the concept of 'exploring the true meaning of science and conquering complex diseases' to provide patients with safe and effective innovative therapies, reduce patient suffering, improve quality of life and create social value. 

Dr. Hongjian Zhang, founder of Viva Star Biosciences, said, "Developing First-in-Class therapies to meet urgent clinical needs is both an exciting and a long and risky journey. We are very grateful to our investors for their trust and support, and for working with us to achieve our goal of developing innovative therapies and solving clinical therapeutic challenges! Since moving into SIP Biomedical Industrial Park, Viva Star Biosciences has received great support from the park leaders, various departments and colleagues. At present, the company has a competent and experienced team and the project is progressing smoothly. With the expansion of our team and the improvement of our key technology platform, we are confident to become a leader in this field in terms of global IP and product pipeline layout, project advancement and many other aspects!"