Deals and Financings

• Shanghai’s EpimAb sold global (ex-China) rights for a clinical-stage BCMA-targeting T-cell engager to Vignette Bio, a San Francisco startup, in a $635m deal.
• Shenzhen TargetRx raised $20m by selling China commercial rights for an ALK inhibitor to Nanjing’s Simcere Zaiming;
• Hangzhou Hygieia Biotech staged an A2 financing to advance its 11 siRNA molecules, including two out-licensed assets, one with Fosun the other with Tasly;

Company News

• Connect Biopharma has moved its headquarters to San Diego from Suzhou; it sold China rights for its lead asset, rademikibart, to Simcere and wants another deal for the rest of the world.
  
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Deals and Financings

• Belgium’s UCB divested its entire current China five-drug portfolio, making way for its late-stage clinical assets; CBC paid $680 million for the older drugs;
• Shanghai’s YolTech sold China rights for its PCSK9-targeting base editing therapeutic to Shenzhen Salubris Pharma in a $145 million deal;
• New Jersey’s Navigator Medicines raised $100 million in initial funding to develop an OX40L-targeted portfolio in-licensed from Korea’s IMBiologics;
• Bora Pharmaceuticals, a Taiwan CDMO, continued its acquisition of US-based CDMOs by acquiring a 30.5% share of San Diego’s Tanvex Biopharma;
• Shanghai DualityBio plans to conduct a Hong Kong IPO to support its portfolio of ADC therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune diseases.
  
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Deals and Financings

• Shanghai Multitude Therapeutics out-licensed global rights (ex-China) for its Tissue Factor (TF) ADC to Denmark’s Adcendo in a $1 billion agreement;
• Hangzhou’s Huadong Pharmaceutical acquired rights for two immune disease therapies from IMBiologics of South Korea in a $383 million agreement;
• Finland’s Bone Index, a bone health diagnostic device company, completed a funding round with Lynx Financial (HK) Limited, which may foster a China partnership;
• India’s Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and its CRDMO signed a non-binding MOU with Kainomyx, a US company, to develop an affordable anti-malaria drug;
• EA Pharma sold global rights for a calcimimetic to Pathalys Pharma that may control intact parathyroid hormone levels in hemodialysis patients;
• Merck (MSD) modified its set of ADC partnerships with Sichuan’s Kelun-Biotech by dropping one candidate and adding a bispecific solid tumor ADC for $37.5 million upfront;

Trials and Approvals

• GenFleet Therapeutics was approved for a China launch KRAS G12C inhibitor in patients with advanced NSCLC harboring a KRAS G12C mutation, the first KRAS therapy approved in China.
  
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Deals and Financings

• Japan’s Eisai Pharma will collaborate with SEED, a Pennsylvania biotech, to develop molecular glues for targeted degradation of proteins in a $1.5 billion deal;
• Shanghai OcuMension acquired Chinese rights to a portfolio of dry eye treatments from Alcon in exchange for a 17% stake in OcuMension’s shares worth $110 million;
• Huzhou TYK Medicines will complete a $74 million Hong Kong IPO  to support its portfolio of small molecule cancer drugs;
• Proto Axiom, an Australian biomedical incubator, announced a $20 million first close of a Series B round that is expected to eventually raise $30 million;
• Merck KGaA Singapore partnered with NSG BioLabs, a Singapore biotech co-working laboratory/office space, to provide resources for biotech startups;

Trials and Approvals

• Shanghai Visen Pharmaceuticals reported that 77% of patients met the primary endpoint in a China Phase III trial of its hypoparathyroidism therapy;
• Suzhou Ascentage Pharma has been cleared to start China Phase III trials of an oral Bcl-2 selective inhibitor in patients with higher-risk myelodysplastic syndrome;
• Biosyngen, a Singapore-Guangzhou cell therapy company, has been approved to start a pivotal US Phase II trial of its Epstein-Barr-Virus-specific CAR-T cell therapy;
• Hangzhou Vimgreen Pharma has enrolled 150 Parkinson’s Disease patients in a China Phase II trial of a novel adenosine A2A receptor antagonist.
  
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Deals and Financings

• Curon, a Shanghai biopharma, out-licensed global rights for a T-cell-engager bispecific antibody candidate to Merck for $1.3 billion including $700 million upfront;
• Taijin’s Tasly Pharma sold a 28% stake in itself to China Resources Sanjiu Medical & Pharmaceutical;
• Beijing Genor Biopharma granted a global license for its CD20/CD3 bispecific for autoimmune diseases to TRC 2004 in a $443 million-plus deal;
• Daiichi Sankyo entered a $170 million agreement to co-develop Merck’s MK-6070, an investigational delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) targeting T-cell engager;
• Huadong Medicine (Hangzhou) entered a $153 million pact for China commercialization rights to Immunopharm’s IM19, a CAR T-cell immunotherapy for lymphoma;
• Tokyo’s Kyowa Kirin will refocus on advanced antibody technologies and hematopoietic stem cell gene therapies, selling its China operations for $105 million;
• WuXi Biologics partnered with Medigene AG, a Munich Biotech, to design T cell receptor-guided T Cell Engagers aimed at difficult-to-treat tumors;
• Sanyou Biopharma, a Shanghai CRMO, will collaborate with Guangdong JiAnTeBo Biotechnology to discover new antibody candidates;

Trials and  Approvals

• Suzhou T-Maximum Pharmaceutical reported that its universal CAR-T therapy was administered successfully to 50 adult patients with recurrent high-grade glioma;
• WestGene Biopharma said its mRNA therapeutic cancer vaccine, WGc-043, received dual IND approvals in China and the US.
  
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