Last week, people from both sides of the Pacific, all of them with an interest in China life science, came together for ChinaBio® Day, which was held in San Francisco in conjunction with BioPharma America™. Experts with partnership experience brought their expertise to the Panel Discussions, which we covered in detail. The panel subjects were: A Big Pharma Perspective on Leveraging China’s Resources (see story), the Impact of the Financial Crisis on China Partnering (see story), Case Studies of Successful Partnerships (see story), and Factors for Success in China Partnerships (see story).

Genzyme Corp. (NSDQ: GENZ), the third largest biotech company by revenue, began construction of a $100 million R&D center in Beijing (see story). The center, which will eventually employ 350 people, will comprise 200,000 square feet (18,580 square meters) and is expected to be completed in 2011. It will seek to discover and develop novel biologics and other gene therapies. Genzyme says it is interested in China because of the talent and the market.

The Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences (SIBS) has won SFDA approval to produce its single-dose H1Na vaccine (see story). The Institute expects to produce 3 million doses of the vaccine by October 1 and 10 million doses by year end. SIBS is the third China entity to be given approval for a swine flu vaccine; the other two are Sinovac Biotech (NYSE Amex: SVA) (北京科兴生物制品有限公司) and Hualan Biological Engineering Inc.

Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT) was given SFDA approval for its Xience V® drug eluting stent system as a treatment for coronary artery disease (CAD), the leading cause of death in China (see story). The approval was based on two worldwide clinical trials that enrolled 1302 patients, including 60 patients from two sites in China. Abbott says it plans to launch the device in Q4.

China Aoxing Pharmaceutical Company (OTCBB: CAXG) received SFDA approval to begin a clinical trial of Tilidine/Naloxone capsules, a narcotic drug for moderate to severe pain (see story). The drug is given to alleviate cancer and post-surgical pain. China Aoxing plans to begin the clinical trial by the end of this year, and expects to receive final approval of the drug in 2011.

LEAD Therapeutics released data on LT-29, a novel glycopeptide antibiotic that showed efficacy against many of the most common antibiotic resistant bacteria (see story). LT-29 is in preclinical development to treat serious infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other gram-positive bacteria. LEAD presented data about LT-29 at the recent 49th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).

Tianyin Pharmaceutical Co. (NYSE AMEX: TPI) announced it received GMP certification for its new solid dosage manufacturing facility from the SFDA (see story). The company said the new facility will triple its solid dose capacity. Tianyin, which has historically concentrated in TCM, has been branching out into generic versions of western drugs.

And finally, China Medical Technologies (NSDQ: CMED) (中国医疗技术公司) announced a $30 million share buyback program (see story). The program will begin on October 1 and run for one year. Don’t worry about whether China Medical can afford the $30 million. At the end of its June quarter, the company reported a cash balance of $227 million, and its current market capitalization is $512 million, so the buyback represents only about 6% of the outstanding shares.


Disclosure: none.