Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group has filed to IPO in Hong Kong, with expectations that the offering will raise between $600 million and $700 million (see story). Sihuan was taken private last year for $458 million by a JV comprised of Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia and the controlling shareholders of Sihuan Pharmaceutical. Previously, it was listed on the Shanghai exchange.

ShangPharma Corp., the Shanghai-based CRO, announced plans to stage a $90 million IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (see story). Founded in 2003, the company is one of the largest CROs in China with a staff of more than 1,600 scientists. One of its six divisions, Shanghai ChemPartner, is devoted exclusively to projects from Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY).

China’s pharmaceutical sales will grow at a 25% to 27% clip in 2011, rising to over $50 billion, according to the latest prediction from IMS Health (NYSE: IMS), an international consultancy to the pharma industry (see story). Earlier this year, IMS predicted China’s 2010 sales would hit $42 billion. In contrast, IMS expects global sales of pharmaceuticals will grow in 2011 by a comparatively small 5%-7%.

China’s pharmaceutical market will grow at a CAGR of 13.7% in dollar terms over the next five years (2010-14), taking its combined sales of OTC and prescription drugs from $46.8 billion in 2009 to $88.7 billion in 2014 (see story). The prediction, which was made by Business Monitor International, is lower than the 20% plus expected by other experts.

Tasly Pharma (SHEX: 600535) of Tianjin has in-licensed the China rights to an Alzheimer’s drug in clinical development at ProteoTech, Inc. of Seattle (see story). The two companies will co-develop the novel small molecule, Exebryl-1®, for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease, working for approval in both the US and China. In 2008, Tasly announced it was beginning Phase I tests of the drug, but no results have ever been released.

Scientists from China and England are collaborating to improve the efficacy of artemisinin, a TCM that is the most widely used malaria treatment in the world (see story). The researchers hope to optimize extraction of the active ingredient from wormwood grass and to increase its absorption rate in the body. The program combines researchers from the University of Bradford in the UK with their Chinese counterparts in Jilin University and the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica.

Disclosure: none.