Deals and Financings

Zai Lab (NSDQ: ZLAB) of Shanghai is conducting a Hong Kong IPO that is expected to raise up to $845 million, offering 12.3% of the company's expanded number of shares (see story). On the NASDAQ Exchange, Zai has a market capitalization of $6.2 billion. The company is developing a large portfolio of in-licensed cancer and infectious disease candidates. Its PARP inhibitor is approved for China use in ovarian cancer and a medical device, Tumor Treating Fields, is approved in China for glioblastoma.

Beijing-based Biocytogen completed a $142 million Series D+ round led by returning investor CMB International (see story). Biocytogen is a CRO that provides gene-modified animal models for drug discovery and preclinical testing. Founded in 2008, Biocytogen has branches in Beijing, Haimen /Jiangsu, Shanghai and Boston. The company generates custom gene-modified animal models/cell lines used for immunoncology molecules and therapeutic antibodies. One year ago, Biocytogen closed a $77 million Series D venture round.  

LinkDoc Technology a Beijing oncology big data company, raised $103 million in a Series D+ funding round, primarily from new investors, CICC Capital, Youshan Capital and iFOF (see story). Founded in 2014, LinkDoc offers electronic medical records to hospitals, and it gathers medical data, using AI to develop clinical best-practice guidelines for cancer. Two years ago, LinkDoc completed a $143 million Series D round exclusively from state-owned China Investment Corporation.  

Tianjin JuveStar Biotech, a Fosun Pharma (SHA: 600196; HK: 02196) affiliate, acquired Greater China rights to an aesthetic product from Israel's Raziel Therapeutics in a $74 million agreement (see story). RZL-012 is an injectable drug initially indicated to treat moderate to significant submental fullness, known commonly as a double-chin. Raziel expects to test the product in other body fat indications in the future. Fosun has invested in JuveStar and is incubating the company.

XWPharma of Wuhan completed a $40 million Series C financing to develop its portfolio of novel neurobiology candidates (see story). XW, which also has operations in Redwood City, California, was previously known as XW Laboratories. In addition, the company announced that Leonard Blum, an industry veteran, will become President and CEO of XW, and will spearhead increased emphasis on US development. The C round was led by Panacea Venture. In its two previous rounds, XW raised $23 million in venture capital.

Singleron Biotechnologies, a Nanjing-Suzhou start-up developing its Gexscope® high-throughput single-cell multiplex analysis technology, completed a $30 million Series A round led by Lilly Asia Ventures (see story). Founded in 2018, Singleron applies its single cell analysis technologies to clinical diagnosis, drug development and health management. Singleron will use the proceeds to develop its single-cell platform products and their clinical applications, to accelerate commercialization of its technologies and to build an international presence.  

Forerunner Medical (Shanghai) closed a Series B funding that raised at least $28 million, though the exact amount was not disclosed (see story). Forerunner makes minimally invasive ablation/coagulation medical devices, especially low-temperature plasma radio-frequency devices and electrodes for sport medicine, spinal disk repair and ENT treatment. In cancer, its products are approved in China to treat liver, lung, thyroid, breast and other cancers. The funding was led by CICC Capital, with participation from Cenova Capital, Apricot Capital, Dalton Venture and Huaxing Capital.  

GenScript ProBio, a Nanjing CDMO, agreed to license a bispecific antibody to REMD Bio for an undisclosed target. REMD is a clinical stage San Francisco-Beijing biologics company (see story).  REMD will pay GenScript ProBio service fees, commercialization milestones and royalties. The bispecific antibody is derived from single-domain antibody fused to GenScript's monoclonal antibody (SMAB) platform. In 2019, the two companies formed a collaboration to develop several novel bispecific cancer immunotherapy candidates.  

Yufan Bio, a Xi'an clinical-stage CAR-T company, partnered with Abound Bio of Pittsburgh to develop novel CAR-T technologies (see story). The two companies will explore the use of HPK1 (hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1) inhibitors to make CAR-T therapies more effective. HPK1 has been shown to promote CAR-T exhaustion in research done by Xuebin Liao, PhD, Professor of Pharmaceutical Science at Tsinghua University and a Yufan co-founder. Yufan is working to inhibit HPK1 via gene knockout or small-molecule inhibitors.  

Covid-19 Pandemic 

The Fosun Pharma (SHA: 600196; HK: 2196)  mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 could complete its Phase III trials in October, according to Aimin Hui, President of Global R&D at Fosun (see story). Earlier this year, Fosun acquired China rights to the vaccine from BioNTech of Germany in a $135 million deal. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), which owns US rights to the vaccine, is conducting a Phase III trial of BNT162b2 that has already enrolled over 25,000 subjects. Fosun will stage a China bridging trial of the vaccine in China subjects and then conduct a China arm of the global Phase III trial.  

Trials and Approvals

Everest Medicines, a China in-licensing company, reported positive top-line safety results from a China Phase I trial of taniborbactam in multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogens (see story).  Taniborbactam was tested in combination with cefepime. Everest acquired rights to cefepime-taniborbactam in Greater China and southeast Asia from VenatoRx of Pennsylvania. The two companies are conducting a pivotal Phase III trial of the cefepime-taniborbactam combination in patients with complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI).

Shanghai's I-Mab (NSDQ: IMAB) and MorphoSys AG (FSE: MOR) of Munich announced they have permission to start US trials of an anti-C5aR1 antibody in patients with advanced solid tumors (see story). The candidate is designed to be used together with checkpoint inhibitors. Two years ago, I-Mab in-licensed greater China rights to the novel antibody in a $105 million agreement. As part of the deal, I-Mab agreed to conduct ex-China trials of the candidate in return for a single-digit royalty on sales outside of China.

Ascentage Pharma (HK: 6855) of Suzhou was granted Orphan Drug Designation in the US for a novel MDM2-p53 inhibitor as a treatment for gastric cancer (see story). It is the first ODD for APG-115. Although GC is a rare disease in the US, it is the third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, with a very high incidence in China and Japan. Ascentage said APG-115 has shown promising results in preclinical GC tests. One week ago, Ascentage reported its novel Bcl-2 inhibitor was awarded ODD in the US for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Disclosure: none.