Qiming Venture Partners has established a 250 million RMB ($36.7 million) fund that will concentrate on biomedical companies located in the Beijing area (see story). The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Beijing’s Municipal Government are partners in the fund, and government sources contributed 40% of the capital. The new fund follows an increasing trend of RMB-denominated venture and private capital funds. It will invest 60% of its capital in Beijing-based biomedical companies.

An investment firm, Jana Partners LLC, will try to stop the acquisition of WuXi PharmaTech (NYSE: WX) by Charles River Labs (NYSE: CRL) (see story). Jana Partners purchased 4.7 million shares of Charles River in recent weeks, making it the company’s largest shareholder. When the WuXi-Charles River transaction was originally announced, Charles River’s stock price dropped 15%. Jana Partners hopes to profit on its investment by halting the purchase or forcing WuXi to accept a lower price.

Anhui Anke Biotechnology (SZEX: 300009) paid 7 million RMB ($1 million) for a 70% stake in Zhejiang Fuwei Pharmaceutical (see story). Fuwei’s major product is adefovir dipivoxil, an oral nucleotide analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor (ntRTI), used to treat hepatitis B.

Simcere Pharmaceutical (NYSE: SCR) (先声药业) announced a transaction that will increase its ownership of Boda Pharma to 90% (see story). Boda makes Yidasheng, an injectable edaravone drug for management of stroke. Yidasheng complements Bicun, another injectable edaravone drug that is Simcere’s mainstay product. Simcere purchased its original 51% stake in Boda in September of 2007, paying $14.8 million.

Shenzhen Beike Biotechnology formed a JV with SiriCell Technologies of Bangkok, a fellow stem cell company (see story). Beike Holdings Limited, as the JV is called, will focus on building international subsidiaries of Beike and developing partnerships with hospitals throughout Southeast Asia. The ultimate goal is to expand the reach of Beike’s stem cell therapies, currently available only in China, throughout Asia.

WisTa Laboratories Ltd, a subsidiary of TauRx Pharmaceuticals, and Bayer Schering Pharma (XETRA: BAY) will collaborate to develop diagnostic tools for Alzheimer’s disease (see story). Using Bayer’s expertise in brain imaging diagnostics, the collaboration will seek to measure buildup of Tau protein in brain cells. TauRx is focused on developing drugs that target Tau protein to halt or reverse the progress of Alzheimer’s.

China Medical Technologies (NSDQ: CMED) (中国医疗技术公司) said its SPR-based HPV-DNA chip has been approved by the SFDA (see story). The fully automated machine is capable of identifying the 16 high-risk HPV subtypes and 8 low-risk variations as well as viral load. Human papillomavirus is a common virus that can lead to warts as well as cervical cancer.

In a Phase II trial, Roche’s (SVX: ROG) Tarveca greatly increased survival among patients with a specific form of non-small cell lung cancer (NSLC), advanced lung adenocarcinoma (see story). The drug was especially potent among patients who have epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activating mutations. NSLC with EGFR activating mutations is a genetically distinct form of lung cancer that is most common in patients who have never smoked, patients with adenocarcinoma, people of Asian origin and females.

In a new study, Beike Biotechnology reported that an umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells transplant (UC-MSCT) seemed to improve patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who had not responded to standard treatments (see story). Among the16 patients who received stem cell transplants, there were no treatment-related mortality or other adverse events. Ten patients completed at least 6 months of follow-up and 2 patients were followed for more than 2 years.

Disclosure: none.

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