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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.

Here are some interesting facts: Around one quarter of active drug development now has a Chinese origin, with particular emphasis in biologics, cell therapies and cancer R&D.” Or: “There are now around 5,000 drugs under active development by China headquartered companies, part of an ecosystem of around 1,700 drug developers. Remarkably, it was only five years ago that Chinese companies collectively possessed just 1,000 drug programs, and 10 years ago the figure was a mere 200.” For context, these numbers compare to 22,000 drug assets in development globally. The data was reported in an In Vivo report called “The Growing Pains of Chinese Biotech,” which is available online (see article). 

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