Venturepharm Laboratory announced the signing of a letter of intent with a “large leading multinational healthcare company” to form a joint venture (see story). The independent third party will own a 70% stake in the clinical stage CRO JV. No dollar amounts were mentioned, nor was the name of the company released. Venturepharm did say it would contribute its clinical research business to the JV.

The biggest 100 pharmaceutical manufacturers in China produced revenues of 339 billion RMB in 2009 ($50 billion), a 25% increase from the year earlier (see story). The top 100 accounted for 42% of the drug market, a year-over-year rise of 1.4%. The total market for drugs, meanwhile, climbed only 20.8%.

China Animal Healthcare (SI: CAHC), a Singapore-listed company, raised $45 million in new capital from an investor group led by the US private equity heavyweight Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) (see story). China Animal Healthcare will use the proceeds to expand its vaccine business, make acquisitions or buy back shares.

Artepharm Global Corp. (OTCBB: ARGC) announced a $10 million effort to eradicate malaria in East Africa’s Comoros Islands (see story). The effort will use Artepharm’s patented ArteQuick Malaria treatment, an inexpensive four-pill treatment based on a TCM, artemisinin, which has been used for centuries to treat malaria.

HEGLN (Dalian) Pharmaceutical, a China biotech company, paid $2 million (US) to acquire the uroNIRS technology from Urodynamix Technologies (TSX Venture: URO) of Canada (see story). The uroNIRS machines use near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as a non-invasive means of diagnosing urologic conditions.

Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (STO: SOBI) will set up a strategic commercial alliance with Tonghua Dongbao Pharma Co Ltd. (SHEX: 600867) (see story). Under the terms of the agreement, each company will become the “sales partner of choice” for products from the other entity.


Disclosure: none.

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