Recent Articles in Industry Insights

On February 14, AmCham Shanghai’s Healthcare Committee held a conference call to discuss the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic on China healthcare businesses (see original article). Ten executives participated in the call, noting (among other issues) that distribution has been adversely affected, staff shortages are widespread, patient visits to hospitals are paradoxically lower, and revenues would be affected in the first quarter and possibly beyond. The discussion was moderated by ChinaBio's Greg Scott, the Chair of AmCham Shanghai’s Healthcare Committee, and participating companies included big pharmas, private hospitals, medical devices, diagnostics and medical supply companies. AmCham Shanghai printed a summary of the discussion, which ChinaBio® Today has reprinted with their permission.

Share this with colleagues:

In China, 67% of biotech companies focus on oncology, and most of them are developing a PD-1/PD-L1 candidate. There are 45 companies working on PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies with more than 100 clinical trials underway as of March this year, according to Frank Jiang, CEO of CStone Pharma. Dr. Jiang spoke as a panelist at the Chinatrials 12 Summit held in Shanghai recently. In the panel discussion, written up in BioWorld, Participants were asked how China biotech companies with PD-1/PD-L1 candidates could differentiate their products with so many PD-1/PD-L1 candidates in development. More details....

Stock Symbol: (HK: 2616)

Share this with colleagues:

According to a survey of 53 China-focused life science investors, 79% of the respondents believe the US is the current global leader in innovation for life science while only 15% picked China. But fast forward six years to expectations for 2025, the vote was split evenly between the two countries at about 48% each, a big turnaround. The data comes from an online survey conducted by Healthcare Drinks, an industry networking group that presented the survey results at its most recent event, which was held at the Harvard Business School Club of Shanghai earlier this month. More details....

One year ago, the Hong Kong Exchange started its pre-revenue track for China biopharma IPOs. In its first twelve months of activity, the exchange hosted IPOs for ten biopharmas, including seven pre-revenue firms, and raised over US$4.2 billion. That made the HKEX the world's second largest exchange for biopharma IPOs. Charles Li, Chief Executive of the Exchange, told the more than 1,000 attendees at the Second HKEX Biotech Summit, held last week, that ten more biopharmas have already filed for future IPOs with a "very strong" pipeline following them. However, as Mr. Li noted in his Keynote Address, the future for Hong Kong and biotech has more than its usual share of uncertainty. More details....

Share this with colleagues:

In a deeply researched Wall Street Journal article, Preetika Rana provides extraordinary depth into the story of Dr. Jiankui He, the man who announced last November he had used Crispr-Cas9 gene editing to alter human embryos in eight women. Dr. He was widely condemned at the time for the first-in-human experiment, and is probably now imprisoned by China authorities. But Ms. Rana told ChinaBio® Today, "Dr. He was a product of a system that encourages breaking scientific and social barriers, with rewards coming first." She continued, "As one of my sources says in the story: 'Of course, he made his own choices. But he was a product of his environment,' Arizona University’s Dr. Hurlbut said of Dr. He. 'The narrative of a rogue scientist excuses the rest of science from having played a role. That’s just not true.'" Ms. Rana has kindly provided a free link for ChinaBio readers to access the Wall Street Journal front page article (see article). More details....

Share this with colleagues: