Deals and Financings

United Family Healthcare, a chain of nine private China hospitals, agreed to be acquired by New Frontier Corp. (NYSE: NFC), a public investment vehicle, at an expected value of $1.44 billion (see story). UFH is currently owned by TPG and Fosun Pharma (SHA: 600196; HK: 2196). It is one of the largest integrated private healthcare service providers in China by revenue. Its nine hospitals (including two under construction) and 14 clinics are located in first and select second tier cities. UFH plans to continue to grow through organic expansion and strategic acquisitions.

Shenzhen Chipscreen Biosciences (SHA: 688321) priced its Shanghai STAR Board IPO to raise $148 million at a $1.2 billion valuation, the first China pharma to list on the new exchange (see story). Demand for STAR IPOs continues to be off-the-chart strong: Chipscreen's IPO price reflects a PE ratio of 468, a record for the exchange so far. Chipscreen's block of stock reserved for retail investors was almost 3,000 times oversubscribed. After the first group of STAR IPOs began trading, they rose an average of 140%. Chipscreen is expected to be begin trading as soon as August 12.

Xiamen Weiyang Pharma reached a tentative deal to in-license China rights for a low-dose oral interferon alpha (IFNa) technology from Amarillo Biosciences of Texas (see story). The indications for the technology has not been determined, though Amarillo has been developing IFNa for thrombocytopenia, Sjögren's syndrome, hepatitis C and influenza. Xiamen Weiyang will pay an upfront license fee and milestones, plus royalties. Amarillo will license future products resulting from the venture for distribution outside of China.

Hinova Pharma, a Chengdu novel drug company, completed a $40 million Series B round led by Hermed Capital and Fosun Pharma (SHA: 600196; HK: 2196) (see story). The company said it would use the proceeds to support its China-US Phase III trials of its treatment for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), and a Phase I/II clinical study for a gout treatment. Founded in 2013, the company is developing a portfolio of eight novel drugs. The B round also included Lang Sheng Investment, Prosper Capital and other investors.

Huadong Medicine (SHZ: 000963) announced a $60 million deal to acquire China/Asian rights to a portfolio of optical medical diagnostic devices from MediBeacon of the US (see story). The agreement's initial product, which assesses kidney function by measuring florescence in the skin, is about to start a pivotal US-EU trial. Huadong will make an initial $15 million equity investment in MediBeacon at a $300 million valuation and a second $15 million investment upon US approval at a $400 million valuation.

Jiangsu Zecheng Biotech completed a $26 million C Round financing to support its in vitro diagnostic business that offers fully automatic chemiluminescence-based tests (see story). The round was led by Hongtai Capital and included Wuxi Capital along with other firms. The funds will be used for R&D of new products and platform improvements. Zecheng Bio's devices and reagents have been approved in China and the EU. Established in 2011, Zecheng sells its devices to secondary and tertiary hospitals in China and markets them in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Southern Europe.

TriArm Therapeutics of Shanghai, Germany and Taiwan completed a $20 million Series A financing to develop next-gen cellular therapies (see story). Founded in 2018, TriArm is developing a CD19 CAR-T product that has a two-to-three-day manufacturing process, which is much shorter than the current three-week process. The A round was led by Panacea Venture, the company's original backer. In December 2018, TriArm formed a $35 million JV, called Eden BioCell, with Boston's Ziopharm for China rights to third-gen CAR-T therapies targeting the CD19 antigen.

Jiangsu Qyuns Therapeutics, a Taizhou company that develops monoclonal antibody drugs for autoimmune diseases, raised $20 million in a Series B financing led by Hongtai Capital (see story). Founded in 2015, Qyuns is developing six candidates, most of them interleukin antibodies. It has two biosimilar drugs in China clinical trials, including a biosimilar to tocilizumab, a Chugai drug marketed as Actemra for various rheumatoid arthritis conditions. Triwise Capital, a Shenzhen VC investor, also participated in the B round.

CGene Tech, a Suzhou BioBay novel small molecule drug developer, raised $14.5 million in a Series A+ financing, led by Hongtai Capital with ABC International participating (see story). CGene's lead candidate is an innovative cetagliptin phosphate DPP-4 inhibitor for type 2 diabetes that has completed a Phase I trial in China. CGene said it would use the proceeds from the round to advance the clinical program for its hypoglycemic drug and support development of its oncology candidates and generic drugs for rare diseases.

Hunan Zhongsheng Whole Peptide Biochemical, also known as Zspeplib, recently completed a $14 million Series A financing led by Tasly Group (see story). The funds will be used to build a hexapeptide library, optimize the company's peptide-based new drug screening platform and develop new drugs. Zspeplib uses peptide information compression technology (PICT) to build a complete library of peptides with independent IP. Its technology reduces the cost of building a peptide library and can improve the efficiency of building a database by 6000 times, the company said.

Sihuan Pharma (HK: 0460) announced it would form a Hong Kong JV with Strides (BSE: 532531), a Bangalore maker of complex drugs, which will have China rights to four Stride drugs (see story). Initially, the JV will import finished drugs from Strides' facilities in India and Singapore, though it may build a China manufacturing facility in the future. It was the third China-India pharma JV announced in the last few months, following similar deals between Cipla and Jiangsu Acebright, plus Sun Pharma and China Medical System Holdings.

Trials and Approvals

I-Mab Biopharma, a Shanghai-San Diego biopharma, announced its US partner, Tracon Pharma (NSDQ: TCON), has begun a US Phase I clinical trial of I-Mab's CD73 antibody in patients with advanced solid tumors (see story). TJD5 is a novel antibody that blocks CD73, a highly immunosuppressive surface enzyme on cancer cells. In the first-in-human trial, TJD5 will be dosed as a single agent and in combination with Tecentriq®, a Roche PD-L1 antibody. I-Mab intends to start similar China trials of TJD5 as well.

Xynomic Pharma (NSDQ: XYNO), a US-China oncology company, has been approved to conduct two China pivotal trials of its lead drug candidate, abexinostat, a novel HDAC inhibitor (see story). Abexinostat will be tested as a single agent in third-line treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and third-line treatment of follicular lymphoma (FL). Xynomic said it expects patient enrollment for the two trials will be completed in 12 months at 24 China hematological cancer hospitals. Xynomic has already started global pivotal trials of abexinostat for renal cell carcinoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

CANbridge Pharma of Beijing filed an NDA in China for a rare disease treatment that targets Hunter Syndrome. Hunterase (idursulfase beta) is a human recombinant iduronate-2-sulfatase (IDS) enzyme replacement therapy (see story). CANbridge in-licensed China rights to the candidate from GC Pharma (KRX: 006280) of Korea in January of this year. The drug is already available in ten countries. Hunter Syndrome is a rare and often fatal genetic disease that occurs more frequently in Asia than in the West.

Disclosure: none.