Deals and Financings

A major, though as-yet unnamed, China biopharma has bought the prestigious San Francisco-area biotech campus that formerly belonged to Bayer (Xetra: BAY) (see story). The six-building campus, which is located in Richmond, on the Berkeley side of the bay, has been empty for two years. The buyer has promised to disclose its identity and plans for the site next month. One source hints the company will seek to set up a biopharma hub, a US base for itself and other China biopharmas, rather than occupy the entire space itself. Whatever the plans turn out to be, the purchase signals a China pharma beachhead on US soil. The purchase price was not disclosed. 

HitGen Ltd. and Viva Biotech Ltd., two China CROs specializing in early-stage services, announced a new collaboration. HitGen, located in Chengdu, offers lead generation services. Viva Biotech of Shanghai is a structure-based drug discovery CRO (see story). According to the two companies, their now-integrated early hit-to lead generation program addresses a previously unmet need in China’s pre-clinical drug discovery sector.

Naton Medical, a Beijing maker of orthopedic products, has joined with two Malaysia-based medical device companies, OSA Niaga and Straits Orthopedics, to form a Malaysia JV (see story). The partners expect the company to produce $1.5 billion of revenue. The new enterprise will initially supply orthopedic products to Malaysia, then expand to other Asian countries and the Middle East. Eventually, it hopes to export to the developed markets of the US, Europe and Japan.

Government and Regulatory

India announced it will locate its own drug inspection office in China in March of 2013, complete with four full-time inspectors (see story). It will be India's first foreign drug office in any country. The Beijing-located operation, which will be in charge of inspecting China manufacturing facilities that export products to India and the medical products themselves, will check to insure that GMP practices are being followed.

Disclosure: none.