Deals and Financings

• Adlai Nortye, a Hangzhou-New Jersey immunoncology biopharma, completed a $97.5 million IPO on the NASDAQ exchange, trading 33% lower on its first day;
• Nanjing Triastek closed a $20 million Pre-C financing round to support its 3D printing process for complex drug delivery and programmed release medications;
• Hangzhou Qihan Biotech raised $16 million in a pre-B funding for its gene-edited stem cell products, including a lead product for CD19-positive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma;
• Shanghai’s I-Mab announced AbbVie will end its $2 billion partnership with I-Mab, returning all rights for a CD47 antibody drug candidate;

Trials and Approvals

• Yantai RemeGen reported positive results from a Phase III trial of Telitacicept, the company’s autoimmune drug, as a therapy that targets two cell-signaling molecules for rheumatoid arthritis;
• Shanghai AffaMed will begin China Phase III trials of Risuteganib, its first-in-class injectable ophthalmic intravitreal candidate for dry age-related macular degeneration;
• BioCity, a Wuxi, China biotech, will start a China Phase Ib/II trial of its TIM-3 mAb together with AstraZeneca's approved anti-PD-L1 for advanced liver cancer;
• Suzhou Gracell Biotech said its dual targeting CAR-T cell therapy for multiple myeloma produced a 100% overall response rate and a 100% minimal residual disease rate;
• Hangzhou Ascletis Pharma has enrolled the first 120 patients in the China Phase III trial of ASC40 combined with bevacizumab to treat recurrent glioblastoma;
• Elpiscience, a Shanghai-Suzhou oncology immunotherapy company, has dosed the first patient in an Australian Phase I trial of an anti-LILRB2 monoclonal antibody.
  
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Deals and Financings

• Shanghai Everest Medicines acquired China/Asian rights to a novel therapy for autoimmune diseases from Kezar Life Sciences of South San Francisco in a deal worth $132.5 million;
• Guangzhou Canton Biologics closed a $41 million Series C financing round to expand its biologic CDMO services;
• Hangzhou Lynk Pharma completed a $16 million Series C2 financing to advance its portfolio of oncology and autoimmune therapies;
• Chime Biologics, a Wuhan biologic CDMO, will partner development of a novel protein drug for solid tumors with Panolos Bioscience of South Korea;
• Tonghua Dongbao Pharma out-licensed US commercialization rights for three insulin biosimilars — insulin aspart, insulin lispro, and insulin glargine — to Chicago’s Meitheal Pharma;
• Boston’s PackGene Biotech partnered with Kudo Biotechnology of Singapore to provide end-to-end mRNA manufacturing services for drug and vaccine development;
• Novartis returned BeiGene’s anti-PD-1 candidate to BeiGene after paying $650 million for ex-China rights; previously, BMS returned the anti-PD-1;

Trials and Approvals

• Shanghai Clover Biopharma launched AdimFlu-S, its quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccine in mainland China, which it acquired from Taiwan’s Adimmune;
• Shanghai Asieris Pharma reported positive Phase III results from its photodynamic drug-device combination product as a non-surgical therapy for cervical lesions;
• AffaMed of Shanghai treated the first patient in a China Phase III study that will test Dextenza as a therapy for ocular inflammation and pain following cataract surgery.
  
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Deals and Financings

• Shanghai Hasten Biopharma entered a $325 million agreement with US-based LIB Therapeutics for greater China rights to a next-gen PCSK9 inhibitor aimed at lowering cholesterol;
• Insilico, a Hong Kong-New York AI company, out-licensed global rights to a USP1 inhibitor for BRCA-mutated tumors to Exelixis of Alameda, California for $80 million upfront;
• Suzhou Cure Genetics, a cell and gene therapy company, announced a $60 million deal to create AAV vectors for Hong Kong’s Frametact, a neurodegenerative disease startup;
• Shanghai ImmuneOnco Biotech completed a $30 million IPO in Hong Kong to support its oncology candidates based on innate and adaptive immunity;
• Shanghai JW Therapeutics will add two cell therapy candidates to its T cell-based therapeutics collaboration with Boston’s 2seventy bio;
• Shanghai Pharmaceuticals signed an MOU with Korea’s AriBio to jointly conduct the China arm of a global Phase III trial of a therapy for early Alzheimer’s disease;

Trials and Approvals

• Zhejiang BioRay Pharma was approved for a China launch of its Class I biological product, zuberitamab injection, to treat CD20-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma;
• Shanghai Dizal Pharma reported its NDA for a Janus kinase 1 (JAK1) inhibitor was accepted for review by China’s CDE to treat peripheral T-cell lymphoma;
• San Diego’s Sorrento Therapeutics reported positive topline results from a pivotal China Phase III trial of an oral Mpro inhibitor, a treatment for mild or moderate SARS-CoV-2;
• Biosyngen, a Singapore-Guangzhou cell therapy company, was green-lighted to begin a US Phase I/II clinical trial of its first T-cell receptor-engineered targeted product for advanced solid tumors.
  
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Deals and Financings

• Shanghai Grit Biotechnology, a cell therapy company, raised more than $60 million in a Series B financing round to develop its pipeline of drugs based on Tumor-Infiltrating lymphocytes;
• Hangzhou Huadong Pharma will pay up to $52 million for an exclusive China license to market a topical psoriasis cream that was developed by the UK’s MC2 Therapeutics;
• Beijing Biocytogen will discover innovative antibody candidates for novel cytotoxic payloads developed UK’s Myricx Bio, which will have an option to in-license them;

Trials and Approvals

• Guangzhou Gloria Biosciences was approved to launch its anti-PD-1 mAb as a second line monotherapy for cervical cancer patients with positive PD-L1 expression;
• Beijing Brii Biosciences reported positive topline results from an interim analysis of its first-in-class Pre-S1/Pre-S2/S therapeutic vaccine for hepatitis B;
• AnHeart Therapeutics, a New York-Hangzhou biotech, dosed the first patient in a global Phase II trial of an mIDH1 inhibitor for a common form of brain cancer;
• Neurophth Therapeutics, a Wuhan-San Diego ophthalmology biotech, was approved to start an Australian clinical trial  of a gene therapy for Autosomal Dominant Optic Atrophy;
• ABM Therapeutics, a Shanghai-San Diego biopharma, started a multicenter China Phase I study of its lead drug in patients with drug resistant malignant brain tumors.

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Deals and Financings

• Shanghai GenFleet Technologies partnered three preclinical small-molecule candidates for RAS pathway-driven cancers with Boston's Verastem Oncology in a deal worth up to $625.5 million;
• Shanghai Kangpu Biopharma closed a $13.8 million B funding round to advance a portfolio of small molecule drugs based on targeted protein ubiquitination and degradation;
• Shanghai Henlius will collaborate with Taipei’s HanchorBio to discover immuno-biomedicines for tumors resistant to anti-PD-1/L1 drugs using Hanchor’s Fc-based biologics platform;

Trials and Approvals

• Genexine, a South Korean biotech, reported its long-acting growth hormone met the primary endpoint in a China Phase III trial conducted by Shanghai’s I-Mab, which owns China rights;
• Guangzhou Akeso completed patient enrollment in a Phase III of ivonescimab, a PD-1/VEGF bispecific antibody, as a first-line treatment for PD-L1 positive advanced or metastatic NSCLC;
• Duality Biologics (Suzhou), together with its partner BioNTech, will start a US Phase III trial of DB-1303, a topoisomerase-1 inhibitor-based ADC aimed at HER2-low breast cancer;
• Nanjing InxMed reported its first-in-class ADC targeting fibroblast-activating protein α (FAPα), was approved to start China trials;
• Shanghai Asieris Pharma will start China trials of an oral dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DβH) inhibitor for patients with moderately-to-severely active ulcerative colitis;
• Harbour BioMed was approved to begin US clinical trials of its first antibody drug conjugate candidate, which targets human mesothelin for solid tumors;

Company News

• Beijing Biocytogen Pharma restructured its operations into two divisions: “BioMice™”, which includes preclinical services; and an unnamed division that discovers novel antibody drugs for out-licensings and partnerships.
  
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