Did you know?

ChinaBio® Group is a consulting and advisory firm helping life science companies and investors achieve success in China. ChinaBio works with U.S., European and APAC companies and investors seeking partnerships, acquisitions, novel technologies and funding in China.  

Learn more >>

Free Newsletter

Have the latest stories on China's life science industry delivered to your inbox daily or weekly - free!

  Email address:
   

Week in Review: AlphaMab Raises $234 Million in Hong Kong IPO; Climbs 35% in First Trading Session

publication date: Dec 14, 2019
 | 
author/source: Richard Daverman, PhD

Deals and Financings

Alphamab Oncology (HK: 9966) raised $234 million in a Hong Kong IPO and traded 35% higher from its offering price to a market cap of $1.2 billion (see story). The company has a PD-L1 candidate that could be approved in China next year and two bispecifics -- KN046 (PD-L1/CTLA4) and KN026 (HER2) -- in Phase II tests. It has eight biologics in development. About half of the proceeds will be used to support clinical development of KN046 for various solid tumors. Alphamab Oncology was spun out from Alphamab last year.

JOINN Biologics, a US-China biologics CDMO, raised $60 million in a Series A financing led by Huagai Capital, a private equity firm (see story). JOINN Biologics was founded in 2018 as the biologics subsidiary of JOINN Laboratories, a China CRO based in Suzhou and Beijing. JOINN Bio is headquartered in a San Francisco-area building that JOINN Labs acquired in 2013. The company said it would use the proceeds from the funding to build a 100,000-liter production base in Beijing and expand its biologics business in China and the US.

3SBio (HK:1530) of Shenyang invested $15.2 million in Zurich's Numab Therapeutics B round and will, in return, have rights to develop up to five novel Numab multi-specific immunotherapy candidates in Greater China for cancer (see story). Numab says its proprietary MATCH™ technology platform develops molecules that can incorporate up to six binding specificities. 3SBio's biologics subsidiary, Sunshine Guojian, will be in charge of China development. Dr. Zhenping Zhu, MD, PhD, President of R&D, Chief Scientific Officer of 3SBio, has joined Numab’s board of directors. Further financial terms were not disclosed.

Trials and Approvals

AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) was authorized to market Imfinzi (durvalumab), its PD-L1 immunotherapy, in China as a treatment for patients with unresectable, Stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (see story). In the drug's Phase III trial, 57% of Imfinzi patients were alive at the three-year mark compared with 43.5% for placebo. Also, the median progression free survival was 16.8 months for Imfinzi against 5.6 months for placebo.. So far, China has approved five PD-1 drugs, but Imfinzi is the first PD-L1 candidate to enter the market.

BeiGene (NSDQ: BGNE; HKEX: 06160) of Beijing released positive clinical results from three trials of its BTK inhibitor Brukinsa™ at this year's American Society of Hematology Meeting (see story). Two oral presentations showed Brukinsa was well-tolerated and produced a 93% overall response in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma. A poster presentation reported a combination of Brukinsa and BeiGene's anti-PD-1 antibody tislelizumab demonstrated preliminary signs of efficacy in patients with previously treated B-cell malignancies. In November, Brukinsa received its first marketing approval as a treatment for mantle cell lymphoma in the US.

Zhejiang Medicine (SHA: 600216) and its majority owned subsidiary, NovoCodex, announced positive early results from a China Phase I trial of an anti-HER2 ADC in heavily pretreated patients with metastatic HER2 positive breast cancer (see story). At the highest dose tested before data cutoff, ARX788 achieved a 63% overall response rate. The candidate targets human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 and causes apoptosis. ARX788 was developed by Ambrx of San Diego and in-licensed by NovoCodex, which is in charge of Phase I development. In return, NovoCodex is eligible to receive a royalty on non-China revenues.

Suzhou Ascentage Pharma (HK: 6855) reported a 95% complete hematologic response rate in one cohort in a China Phase I trial of its BCR-ABL Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor in TKI-resistant patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (see story). Ascentage describes HQP1351 as a novel oral third-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor that targets a broad spectrum of BCR-ABL mutants, including the T315I mutation, to treat drug-resistant CML patients. Ascentage has three pivotal China Phase II clinical trials of HQP1351 underway in China.

Innovent Biologics (HK: 01801) of Suzhou announced its anti-BCMA CAR-T achieved a 100% response rate in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (see story). In addition, 71% of patients had a stringent complete or complete response, and 88% achieved a very good partial response or better. Four of the 17 evaluated patients in the study had relapsed from prior murine CAR-T treatments, implying IBI326 could be a first-line treatment for patients who have relapsed from prior CAR-T infusions. Innovent is developing IBI326 together with Nanjing IASO Bio, an oncology cell therapy company.

BJ Bioscience, a Hangzhou-San Francisco novel drug developer, announced the first patient was dosed in a US Phase I trial of BJ-001, a targeted IL-15 fusion protein aimed at solid tumors (see story). BJ-001 is designed to target cancer cells that overexpress integrins such as αvβ3, αvβ5, and αvβ6 and stimulate immunity with IL-15. Non-small cell lung cancer, stomach cancer, and pancreatic cancer have been shown to overexpress integrin. BJ Bio says BJ-001 is the first tumor targeting IL-15 fusion protein in the world.

CARsgen Therapeutics, a Shanghai clinical-stage CAR-T/monoclonal antibody company, announced China approval to start clinical trials of a claudin18.2 mAb to treat advanced gastric and pancreatic adenocarcinoma (see story). AB011 is the first humanized mAb targeting claudin18.2 to start clinical trials. Claudin18.2, a stomach-specific isoform of claudin-18, is expressed only in short-lived differentiated cells. Pathologically, it is highly expressed in gastric and pancreatic cancer, the company says. It is the third CARsgen candidate to start clinical trials.

Disclosure: none.

 


 

Share this with colleagues:

 

ChinaBio® News

Greg Scott BIO-Europe Interview
Greg Scott Interviewed at BIO-Europe Spring

How to bring your China assets to China in 8 minutes


Greg Scott Mendelspod Interview
"Mr. Bio in China."
Mendelspod Interview

Multinational pharma held to a higher standard in China

Partner Event
November 2-3, 2023 | Shanghai
November 7-8, 2023 | Digital