Deals and Financings
Suzhou Innovent Bio (HK: 01801) expanded its 2015 alliance with Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) for Tyvyt®, Innovent's anti-PD-1 immunotherapy (see story). In return for a $1+ billion package, Lilly will have an exclusive license to develop Tyvyt in ex-China markets. Lilly will pay $200 million upfront and up to $825 million in milestones, plus tiered double-digit royalties on net sales. Innovent and Lilly started co-marketing Tyvyt in China as a third-line treatment for classic Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2019.
JD Health, the healthcare arm of China’s JD.com, will raise more than $830 million from Hillhouse Capital in a Series B financing (see story). JD Health is an online health platform, providing 30-minute delivery of pharmaceutics, a telemedicine service that saw increased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic and consumer-related health services such as genetic testing. In late 2019, JD Health completed a $1 billion Series A at a $7 billion valuation.
Hua Medicine (HK: 2552) put Bayer AG (Xetra: BAYN) in charge of China commercialization of its lead program -- dorzagliatin, a novel treatment for type 2 diabetes (see story). Hua will receive $58 million upfront and up to $600 million in milestones. In China, Bayer is a major player in the diabetes market because of Glucobay®, its generic oral treatment for type 2 diabetes. Hua Medicine will continue to be responsible for clinical development, registration, product supply and distribution, while Bayer will take over marketing, promotion and medical education.
JW Therapeutics, the JV formed by Seattle's CAR-T specialist Juno Therapeutics and China's WuXi AppTec (SHA: 603259; HK: 2359), has posted its prospectus for a Hong Kong IPO (see story). The company will bring Juno's CAR-T cell therapies to China, but it has expanded to include immunotherapy in-licensings from other companies as well. Last month, JW acquired Syracuse Biopharma, a Hong Kong cell therapy company. And the prospectus reveals JW will also acquire China rights to off-the-shelf natural killer cell therapy candidates from Taiwan’s Acepodia. JW is expected to raise between $200 million and $300 million in the offering.
Junshi Biosciences (HK: 1877; SHA: 688180), a Shanghai biopharma, formed a JV with Nanjing's Impact Therapeutics to develop Impact's PARP inhibitor (see story). Junshi will contribute $43 million for 50% of the JV while Impact will add Greater China rights to IMP4297, the company's clinical-stage PARP inhibitor. The two companies will collaborate on conducting clinical trials of the candidate in multiple indications, starting with ovarian cancer, plus preparing for manufacturing and commercialization.
Beijing Keya Medical Technology closed a $22 million Series B+ funding round to support its AI-based cardiovascular imaging software (see story). The company's headquarters is in Seattle, where it is known a CuraCloud, though all of the company's capital has come from China investors. In China, it has operations in Beijing and Shenzhen. Earlier this year, Keya closed a $14 million B financing. The B+ round was led by GGV Capital, and it included existing investors Kunlun, Shanghai International Group and Yahui Capital.
DK Medtech of Suzhou closed a $14 million Series B+ round to support its portfolio of balloon catheter medical devices (see story). The company, which says most balloon catheters are imported to China from global firms, has developed more than 10 products. The investment was co-led by J-Bang Capital and China Growth Capital, and it included Qiming Venture Partners. DK will use the new capital to build a large-scale sales team, promote its launched catheters and develop new products.
Galixier, an AI-based company offering drug discovery services, closed a pre-Series A funding of close to $10 million (see story). Founded in 2019, Galixier combines latest-gen AI with pharmacy, chemistry, biology and other factors to build a platform that helps scientists explore new targets, reduce drug development costs and shorten development timelines. Source Code Capital and DCM Ventures led the investment, with Banyan VC and Morningside VC participating. The company will use the proceeds to develop the platform and expand its research team.
Ocumension Therapeutics of Shanghai paid $9.5 million to add South Korea rights to its greater China in-licensing agreement with EyePoint Pharma (NSDQ: EYPT) for two ophthalmic products (see story). In the US, Dexycu® is the first intraocular product approved to treat postoperative inflammation, and Yutiq® is a three-year treatment of chronic non-infectious uveitis affecting the posterior segment of the eye. Ocumension was established by 6 Dimensions Capital in 2018 to in-license ophthalmology products for China use. http://www.chinabiotoday.com/articles/ocumension-9-million-korea
Harbour Biomed, together with COVID-19 partners Utrecht University and Erasmus Medical Center, formed a new collaboration with two other Dutch entities, Viroclinics-DDL and Kiadis Pharma (Euronext: KDS) to develop a combination of a mAb and Natural Killer (NK) cells to treat COVID-19 (see story). Kiadis' K-NK cell therapy platform has shown activity against SARS-CoV-2 in laboratory tests. In addition, COVID-19 has been shown to break down NK cell immunity, while patients with severe COVID-19 lack functional NK cells.
Trials and Approvals
Shanghai Henlius Biotech (HK: 2696), a Fosun Pharma (SHA: 600196; HK: 2196) offspring, has been approved to launch its Herceptin (trastuzumab) biosimilar in China (see story). It is approved to treat HER2-positive early breast cancer, HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer and HER2-positive metastatic gastric cancer. Henlius said the biosimilar will be automatically listed on China's National Reimbursement Drug List, along with Herceptin. Last month, Henlius was approved for European use in the same indications.
GNI Group (TSE Mothers 2160), a Japan-China biopharma, reported positive results from a China Phase II clinical trial of a liver fibrosis candidate. (see story) The trial was a randomized, double-blind, dose escalation study of F351 to treat hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic HBV. Patients were dosed for one year. The primary endpoint was reducing a patient's liver fibrosis score (Ishak Scoring System) by one grade. F351 is a new chemical entity (NCE) derivation of Etuary®, which inhibits hepatic stellate cell proliferation and the TGF-β signaling pathway.
Ascletis Pharma (HK: 1672) of Hangzhou has started dosing HBV patients in a China Phase IIa trial of its PD-L1 antibody (see story). In 2019, Ascletis in-licensed China rights to the immunotherapy from Alphamab (HK: 9966) for patients with viral diseases. Alphamab, which continues to hold rights to the candidate for cancer, has tested the PD-L1 in more than 1,000 oncology patients. Ascletis agreed to pay Alphamab upfront and milestone payments, but it will be eligible to receive royalties on ex-China sales of the PD-L1 in viral diseases.
Shanghai's I-Mab (NSDQ: IMAB) has dosed the first patient in a Phase Ib trial of plonmarlimab (TJM2) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in China (see story). Plonmarlimab is a humanized immunoglobulin G1 (IgG1) antibody. It targets the cytokine granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), which plays a critical role in autoimmune and inflammatory disease. Neutralizing GM-CSF diminishes inflammatory responses. In the US, a Phase II trial is underway to test TJM2 in patients with cytokine release syndrome caused by COVID-19.
Disclosure: none.
