The ChinaBio® Investor Forum 2007, held December 4-5, 2007 in Shanghai, gave the “Most Promising” award to two early stage China biotech companies. PanAsia Bio of Shanghai won the prize in the Drug Company category, and Chiral Quest of Suzhou was the recipient in the Services group.

PanAsia Bio uses pegylation technology to develop PEG-based drugs. The company was represented at the Forum by its President, Michael Xu, PhD. Chiral Quest, Inc. is a contract manufacturer of chiral drug candidates. It was represented by its Chief Technical Officer, Xumu Zhang, PhD. The two companies were chosen from a list of fifteen companies that made presentations to the forum.

The awards were sponsored by Unitalen, Attorneys at Law, a firm that specializes in intellectual property law. Unitalen has offices throughout the PRC.

The purpose of the ChinaBio® Investor Forum 2007 was to connect early and mid-stage biotech/medtech companies with US and China investors. It also served to update investors and executives on the state of the biotech industry in China, and to help entrepreneurs and executives build global companies. It was the first such event in what the organizers hope will be a series of similar meetings.

Besides the fifteen biotech/medtech companies that presented, discussions of the state of bipharma development and advice on building companies were given by three keynote speakers and fourteen speakers or panelists. All of these speakers are involved in biopharma development, either as venture capitalists, lawyers or industry executives.

The ChinaBio® Investor Forum was sponsored by ChinaBio® Accelerator and ShanghaiBio Corporation. ChinaBio® Accelerator is a non-profit organization that seeks to accelerate the globalization of China's biotechnology industry by providing funding, mentoring and connections between early stage China life science companies and investors/partners in the U.S. ShanghaiBio Corporation makes biochips and provides drug discovery and development services from its facilities in Shanghai and the US. The company is one of the largest biotech companies in China. Neither one of the sponsors was eligible for the “Most Promising” award.

The seven firms that were VC Partners for the Investor Forum were responsible for choosing the two “Most Promising” awards. These firms were Bay City Capital, BioVeda China, HBM BioMed China, Morningside, Life Science Angels, Sequoia Capital China and Mingly China Growth Fund.

The ChinaBio® Investor Forum was held immediately before the Zero2IPO CVCF China VC Annual Forum, the largest annual gathering of venture capitalists in China.


Disclosure: none.