Deals and Financings

BGI Shenzhen, the world’s largest sequencing company, is planning to split itself in two and IPO its institutional sequencing business (see story). The other half, its “retail” diagnostic sequencing segment, serves the hospital/clinic market and will remain private. BGI hasn’t officially announced its IPO, so no financial details for the transaction are available, nor has the company named its target exchange.

Acebright Holdings of China announced new terms for its agreement with NasVax (TASE: NSVX), an Israeli immunotherapy company (see story). As before, Acebright will invest $1 million in NasVax. The company also signed a non-binding MOU that gives Acebright an exclusive right to develop NasVax's oral Anti-CD3 technology for fatty liver disease in Asia Pacific countries including China, India and others, but excluding Japan.

Eddingpharm in-licensed China rights to a clinical-stage cancer treatment from Syndax Pharma of Massachusetts (see story). Entinostat is an oral epigenetic drug that was designed to reverse resistance to targeted oncology therapies. Eddingpharm will develop the drug in China, a process that includes participating in Syndax’s global Phase III trials of the drug. It will also have manufacturing rights to entinostat. Syndax will receive milestone and royalty payments from Eddingpharm for entinostat, though specific amounts were not disclosed.

Trials and Approvals

Hua Medicine began a China Phase I clinical trial of a novel Glucokinase activator treatment for diabetes 2 (see story). The CFDA gave HMS5552, as the Hua drug is known, the designation of type 1.1 novel drug because no drug of the Glucokinase activator class has been approved anywhere in the world. Hua in-licensed China rights to the drug from Roche (SX: ROG) two years ago. In a statement, Dr. Li Chen, CEO of Hua Medicine, noted that it was a significant milestone for Hua to start clinical development in China of an innovative diabetes treatment that is intended for the world’s market.

Company News

China’s Ministry of Public Security, the agency in charge of the investigation into GlaxoSmithKline’s (NYSE: GSK) alleged bribery scheme, said on its website that GSK deserved an “astronomical fine” for its violations (see story). Earlier, one of the four GSK China officials detained in the probe said the company’s China head set very high targets for revenues. The goals were so high, she asserted, that managers could not meet them without offering financial inducements.

Disclosure: none.