Deals and Financings

• LianBio, a Princeton-Shanghai in-licensing company, received a $465 million buyout offer from Tang Capital that includes a contingent value right for 80% of any license or divestment of a LianBio holding;
• Perpetual Medicines of Shanghai and Boston closed an $8 million seed financing to advance its integrated computational design and synthesis platform for peptide drug discovery;
• Accutar Biotech, a New Jersey-Shanghai AI company, will partner with Palo Alto’s Evommune to discover novel small molecule drug candidates for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases;
• China’s Zhifei Biological will expand into metabolic therapeutics by acquiring Chongqing Chenan Biopharma and its six metabolic drug candidates in clinical trials;
• South Korea’s DxVx plans to in-license China and South Korea rights for a novel anti-cancer vaccine from Oxford Vacmedix, a spin-out from Oxford University;

Company News

• Coherus Biosciences will set the US price for its in-licensed PD-1 drug, Loqtorzi, at a “modest” 20% discount to the industry leader, Merck’s Keytruda;
• AstraZeneca, a UK-Sweden big pharma, plans to build a major R&D center in Hong Kong devoted to developing new cell and gene therapy drugs for global use;

Trials and Approvals

• Shanghai Everest Medicines was approved for a China launch of Nefecon® to treat primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy, a rare renal disease, in adults at risk of disease progression;
• Shanghai GenFleet Therapeutics reported China’s CDE has accepted for review the company’s NDA for a KRAS G12C inhibitor that was also granted Priority Review;
• Gracell Biotech, a Suzhou-San Diego CAR-T company, was approved to start a US Phase I/II clinical trial of its FasTCAR-T GC012F in patients with refractory systemic lupus erythematosus.
  
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Deals and Financings

• Beijing’s BeiGene acquired global rights to a novel cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) inhibitor for specific breast cancers from Ensem of Boston in a $1.3 billion agreement;
• Shanghai Usynova Biopharma out-licensed global rights for its clinical stage small molecule KRASG12D inhibitor to AstraZeneca in a deal worth up to $419 million;
• Nanjing Simcere Biopharma acquired Greater China rights to an IL-4Rα inhibitor for atopic dermatitis and asthma from Connect Biopharma in a $141 million agreement;
• Myricx Bio, a UK biotech, licensed rights to a proprietary antibody discovered by Shanghai-based WuXi Biologics, which will be used in an NMTi ADC for solid tumors;
• Chengdu Haisco Pharma out-licensed global (ex-Greater China) rights for its DPP1 inhibitor, a proposed anti-inflammatory therapy for bronchiectasis, to Italy’s Chiesi Farmaceutici;
• Suzhou Porton Advanced, a gene and cell therapy CDMO, formed a partnership with Chengdu’s Ascle Therapeutics to develop NK cells and gene and cell therapies.

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Deals and Financings

• Legend Biotech, a New Jersey-Nanjing CAR-T biotech, partnered its DLL3 (delta-like ligand 3) CAR-T candidates with Novartis in a $1.2 billion agreement ($100 million upfront);
• WuXi XDC, an ADC/bioconjugate CRDMO, staged a very successful US$520 million IPO in Hong Kong, rising 39% in its first trading session and showing the IPO window is at least partially open;
• Shanghai SciClone Pharma acquired China rights to an oral cancer therapy for metastatic breast cancer (mBC) that was developed by Menarini Group of Florence, Italy;
• Guangzhou AnchorDx formed a long-term collaboration with California’s DiaCarta, a precision molecular diagnostics company, to develop molecular diagnostic products for global markets;
• Boston’s Nona Biosciences, an antibody discovery CMO, will integrate novel bioconjugate discovery platforms from GeneQuantum of Suzhou to next-generation bioconjugates;

Trials and Approvals

• Beijing Avistone Biotechnology was conditionally approved to launch vebreltinib, a novel small molecule therapy for MET exon 14 skipping non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in China;
• Pittsburgh’s Viatris and Theravance of Dublin reported positive results from a China Phase III trial of their partnered once-daily maintenance therapy for COPD;
• South Korea’s AriBio expanded a Phase III trial of its early Alzheimer’s disease therapy, a PDE5 ED candidate, into the EU, UK, Korea and China;
• Suzhou Gritgen Therapeutics reported its novel gene therapy for Hemophilia A (HA) was 100% effective in the first 12 weeks following treatment;
• ChromX Health of Guangzhou will collaborate with Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim to develop early diagnostic and intervention devices research for lung fibrosis.
  
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Deals and Financings

• Eccogene, a Shanghai-Boston biotech, out-licensed global rights (ex-China) for its novel small molecule GLP-1 agonist to AstraZeneca in a $2 billion blockbuster deal;
• Zhuhai’s Biotheus sold ex-China rights for a bispecific antibody candidate to BioNTech for $1 billion in milestones ($55 million upfront) plus royalties;
• WuXi XDC, a China CRDMO that offers drug development and manufacturing for ADCs and novel bioconjugates, is conducting a $500 million Hong Kong IPO;
• Celest Therapeutics (Shanghai) acquired China rights to a novel off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell therapy discovered by Senti Biosciences in a $156 million agreement;
• Argo Biopharmaceutical, a Shanghai RNAi company, raised $41 million in a Series A+ round to develop next-gen RNAi drugs for cardiovascular and immune system conditions;
• Suzhou Porton Advanced will partner with BioMap, an AI company whose Xtrimo platform predicts the behavior of proteins, to develop novel gene therapy candidates;

Industry Analysis

• In Vivo published a report entitled “The Growing Pains of Chinese Biotech” that contained amazing facts such as: “Around one quarter of active drug development [globally] now has a Chinese origin;”

Trials and Approvals

• Sirius Therapeutics of Shanghai and San Diego filed to begin a clinical trial in Australia of its next-gen siRNA therapy aimed at thromboembolic disorders;
• Lerna Biopharma, a Singapore, Boston, Shanghai company, will present its lead drug, a first-in-class siRNA that promotes liver regeneration in patients at risk for liver failure, at a scientific meeting.

Deals and Financings

• Jiangsu Hengrui Pharma out-licensed global rights (ex-China) for its next-gen PARP1 inhibitor to Germany’s Merck for a $170 million upfront payment and up to $1.5 billion in milestones;
• BioLineRx, an Israeli biotech, out-licensed China rights to a stem cell mobilizer for multiple myeloma and stem cell diseases to Guangzhou Gloria Biosciences in a $280 million agreement;
• AnHeart Therapeutics, a New York-Shanghai biopharma, sold Japanese rights for its lead drug, a ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor to Nippon Kayaku for $40 million upfront plus milestones and royalties;
• Suzhou CStone Pharma out-licensed China rights for nofazinlimab, the company’s anti-PD-1 antibody, to a subsidiary of 3SBio for $8 million upfront and $14 million in near term milestones;
• Shenzhen Mellow Hope Pharm and Rational Vaccines of Massachusetts partnered to develop, manufacture and commercialize live vaccines for herpes simplex viruses;

Trials and Approvals

• Shanghai Junshi Bio and Coherus BioSciences announced the US FDA approved their partnered PD-1 drug to treat two nasopharyngeal carcinoma indications without any US trials;
• Suzhou Innovent reported its GLP-1R/GCGR dual agonist reduced body weight by 18.6% in obese patients after 48 weeks of treatment in a China Phase II trial;
• HuidaGene Therapeutics, a Shanghai-New Jersey gene editing company, dosed the first patient in a China-US Phase I/IIa clinical trial for inherited blindness caused by RPE65 mutations;
• Ractigen Therapeutics of Jiangsu presented positive preclinical results of its short duplex RNA technology for a gene therapy to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy;
• Shenzhen Chipscreen Biosciences was approved to start China clinical trials of its novel oral therapy for psoriasis, a small molecule TYK2 inhibitor.
  
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