Deals and Transactions

Xizang Haisco Pharmaceutical Group (SHE: 002653), which produces TCM drug formulations and active pharmaceutical ingredients, completed a $127 million IPO on Shenzhen’s Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Board (see story). The company, located in China’s autonomous Tibet region, is the 11th Tibetan entity to become publicly owned. CITIC Securities was the lead underwriter.

Sanjiu Medical and Pharmaceutical (SHE: 000999) expects to spend between 600 and 700 million RMB ($94.7 - $110.5 million) in its bid for a 99.83% stake in Shandong Shunfeng Pharmaceutical, the beleaguered medicated skin care company (see story). Shufeng Pharma has put itself up for auction because disgruntled shareholders are upset with the company’s management. It established a 600 million RMB base price. Sanjiu asked shareholders for permission to spend up to 700 million RMB on the acquisition.

Da An Gene Co. (SHE: 002030), an in-vitro diagnostic company that is an offshoot of Sun Yat-Sen University, will form a joint venture with a China subsidiary of Life Technologies (NSDQ: LIFE), a major San Diego company also involved in molecular diagnostics (see story). The JV will develop capillary electrophoresis-based molecule diagnosis detection reagents and instruments. The JV will be started with $5.5 million of capital. Da An Gene will contribute $2.4 million of the total for a 42.5% stake in the newly formed company.

Jiangsu Kanion Pharma (SHA: 600557) has transferred the global ex-China rights for three small molecule oncology drug candidates to a newly formed California startup, NewGen Therapeutics, in exchange for a minority position in NewGen (see story). The CEO of Kanion USA, Wang Shen, is a co-founder and VP of R&D at NewGen. In China, Kanion is known mainly as a TCM company.

CRO News

ShangPharma (NYSE: SHP), the pre-clinical CRO based in Shanghai, attained the first milestone in its strategic partnership with Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co. (see story). The partnership, which was announced just four months ago in September 2011, is developing novel therapeutic monoclonal antibodies for an unspecified disease area.

Quintiles, the international clinical-stage CRO headquartered in North Carolina, announced the opening of a business process outsourcing and project management center in Dalian, a northeast China city (see story). Quintiles said the center would be staffed with a multilingual workforce so it can support clinical trials in China, Japan and South Korea.

Big Pharma in China

Novartis (NYSE: NVS) received SFDA approval to sell Lucentis (ranibizumab) in China. Lucentis is a treatment for wet (neovascular) age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which causes blindness and vision loss, usually in people over 50 (see story). The company also announced the China launch of Galvus (vildagliptin), an oral diabetes treatment. Galvus is a dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV) inhibitor indicated for people with diabetes 2.

Trials and Approvals

A hepatitis E vaccine developed by Xiamen Innovax Biotech was granted SFDA approval – the first vaccine approved for hepatitis E anywhere in the world (see story). Innovax worked with researchers at Xiamen University for 14 years to develop the product, which has been supported by grants under China’s 863 Program since 2005. The vaccine was tested in a 100,000 person Phase III trial, whose results were published in The Lancet last year.

News and Analysis

Two China scientists have been awarded a prestigious US prize for their groundbreaking work with a form of leukemia (see story). By combining traditional Chinese medicine and western approaches, they increased the five-year survival rate of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) from 25% to an astonishing 95%. In recognition of their contribution, Drs. Zhen-Yi Wang and Zhu Chen were named recipients of the 7th Szent-Györgyi Prize for Progress in Cancer Research by the National Foundation for Cancer Research in the US.

Disclosure: none.

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