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Deals and Financings

• ProfoundBio, a Seattle ADC company with an R&D facility in Suzhou, will be acquired by Copenhagen’s Genmab A/S in a $1.8 billion all-cash deal;
• Shanghai's Visen Pharma plans to stage an IPO in Hong Kong to develop three rare disease endocrine therapies, acquired from its parent, Ascendis of Denmark;
• Insilico Medicine, an AI drug discovery-development company based in Hong Kong and New York, completed an initial filing for a Hong Kong IPO;
• China Medical System in-licensed an oral JAK1 inhibitor, from San Francisco’s Incyte for autoimmune and inflammatory dermatologic diseases;

Company News

• Aurisco Pharma expanded its cGMP peptide manufacturing site in Yangzhou to offer multi-metric ton capacity for generic GLP-1 peptides;

Trials and Approvals

• Suzhou’s Innovent Biologics and HutchMed of Shanghai filed an NDA in China for a combination therapy aimed at advanced endometrial cancer;
• Zai Lab said its partner Bristol Myers Squibb completed a pivotal Phase III trial showing Krazati® was effective in NSCLC with a KRASG12C mutation;
• Jiangsu Ractigen Therapeutics dosed the first patient in a Phase I trial of its lead candidate, an saRNA therapy for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer;
• Taiwan’s PharmaEssentia reported positive data from studies of its ropeginterferon alfa-2b therapy in patients with polycythemia vera, a type of chronic leukemia;
• Yantal’s RemeGen was granted Fast Track Designation in the US for its novel dual-target fusion protein candidate for primary Sjögren's syndrome.
  
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Deals and Financings

• South Korea’s AriBio out-licensed China rights for AR1001, an Alzheimer’s disease candidate, to an unknown company in a $770 million deal ($90 million upfront);
• AnHeart Therapeutics, a New York-Hangzhou biophama, will become part of Nuvation Bio of New York in an all-stock deal at a $253 million valuation;
• San Diego’s Avenzo Therapeutics closed a $150 million Series A-1 round to develop a CDK2 inhibitor acquired from Allorion, a Boston-Guangzhou biotech;
• Biocytogen Pharma (Beijing) will collaborate with ABL Bio of Korea to develop new bispecific antibody-drug conjugates;

Company News

• US intelligence officials told members of the US Senate that WuXi has illegally transferred intellectual property from US clients to China authorities, according to a Reuters report;

Trials and Approvals

• Sperogenix Therapeutics of Shanghai announced its NDA for vamorolone, a treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, has been accepted for review in China;
• Guangzhou Bio-Thera was cleared to start a US Phase II trial for BAT8006, an ADC targeting Folate Receptor α;
• Beijing InnoCare dosed the first patient in a China Phase Ib trial of its SHP2 allosteric inhibitor in combination with ArriVent’s furmonertinib for NSCLC;
• Shanghai GenFleet will test a combination of a CDK9 inhibitor and BioGene’s BTK inhibitor in patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma.
  
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Company News

• Shanghai WuXi Biologics has broken ground on a $1.4 billion facility in Singapore, the first CRDMO to offer end-to-end biologics services in the city-state;
• WuXi AppTec derived 65% of its 2023 revenues from US biopharmas, a revenue stream that could be stopped by the US Congress’s over concern about China’s use of US data;
• Novo Nordisk, the Danish diabetes biopharma, will invest $556 million to expand its Tianjin production facility, probably to manufacture its weight loss drug, Wegovy;
• Germany’s Merck announced plans to invest $326 million in a new Bioprocessing Production Center in Daejeon, South Korea;

Trials and Approvals

• Beijing’s BeiGene was approved to launch its PD-1 drug, Tevimbra®, in the US for unresectable or metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma;
• Shanghai KeChow Pharma will market tunlametinib in China to treat patients with NRAS mutated advanced melanoma as a second-line therapy;
• Innovent Biologics reported that efdamrofusp alfa met its primary endpoint in a second China Phase II trial for neovascular age-related macular degeneration;
• Suzhou Alphamab Oncology released positive data from a Phase II trial of its anti-PD-L1/CTLA-4 bispecific as a first-line treatment for metastatic NSCLC;
• Shanghai Antengene started the dose expansion portion of a China/Australia Phase II trial of a Claudin 18.2 antibody-drug conjugate for solid tumor cancers;
• Suzhou NeuExcell Therapeutics dosed the first patient with a first-in-class NeuroD1 gene therapy product that transforms glial cells (astrocytes) into neurons.
  
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Company News:

• WuXi AppTec resigned from BIO, the global lobbying organization for biotechnology firms, after the US Congress put pressure on BIO to cut ties with the global, China-headquartered CRDMO;

Deals and Financings

• Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim optioned a license to a Phase I schizophrenia therapy from Sosei Heptares of Japan in an $822 million agreement;
• Jiangsu Hansoh enters $700 million deal for global rights to Zuhai’s proprietary anti-EGFR/cMet bispecific antibodyl;
• PegBio, a Suzhou biotech, filed for a Hong Kong IPO to support commercialization of its long-acting pegylated GLP-1 receptor agonist for type 2 diabetes and obesity;

Deals and Financings

• Yantai RemeGen said an interim analysis of its anti-HER2 antibody drug conjugate showed efficacy in the cervical cancer cohort of a China Phase II trial;
• Ranok Therapeutics, a Hangzhou-Boston biopharma that targets protein degradation to treat cancers, started a China Phase I study of its lead candidate;
• Singapore’s Aslan Pharma reported positive data from a head-to-head study of eblasakimab versus dupilumab in COPD.
  
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