CanSino Biologics (HK: 6185), a Tianjin vaccine company, rose 58% in its first trading day on the Hong Kong Exchange after staging its $161 million IPO. At the IPO price, CanSino was valued at $617 million; its market capitalization is now $968 million. The company is the seventh China biopharma, and its first vaccine company, to complete an IPO in Hong Kong under the exchange's pre-revenue rules. Of the seven companies, five have now moved higher in price following their IPOs, though CanSino's 58% climb is by far the best first-day performance.

Cornerstone investors, including Lilly Asia Ventures, OrbiMed and Tsinlen Zhuo Rui Investment, purchased about 16 million shares of the IPO offering.

CanSino said it would use 45% of the IPO's proceeds for R&D and commercialization of its meningococcal conjugate vaccines. The company has used four platforms to develop 15 novel vaccines for 12 diseases, including MCV2 and MCV4 for meningococcal meningitis. Its Ebola vaccine has been approved for use. The company has submitted an NDA to China's NMPA for MCV2, a bivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine. MCV4, a quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine, has completed a Phase III trial in China. The company plans to file an NDA in China for the vaccine this year.

In the IPO, CanSino sold 57.2 million shares at HK$22, the top of the proposed range. Initially, the company offered to sell 5.7 million shares to Hong Kong investors and 51.5 million shares internationally. Because local investors submitted bids for 520 million shares, the mix was changed to 22.9 million shares to locals and 34.3 million shares internationally. Since its inception in 2009, CanSino raised $115 million in five venture rounds.

CanSino also has six vaccine candidates in clinical trials or CTA stage and 6 pre-clinical vaccine candidates. The company is developing a potential China best-in-class DTcP vaccine for infants, to replace current China vaccines with higher quality world-class vaccines. CanSino says its DTcP Infant candidate has fixed and well-defined DTcP antigen composition with fewer side effects and conveys better immunogenicity than the presently available competition.

To develop its vaccines, CanSino has developed four platform technologies including adenovirus-based viral vector vaccine technology, conjugation technology, protein structure design/recombinant technologies and formulation technology. The company says its platforms complement each other and produce a synergistic effect for research and development efforts, enabling the company to build its vaccine portfolio cost-effectively.

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