HONG KONG – Bionetix Inc., of Suwon, South Korea, has secured ₩10.8 billion (US$9.33 million) in series B funding. The biotech, founded in February 2017, has attracted a total of KRW14.7 billion to date. The company will use the funds to advance NTX-301, a therapy for myelodysplastic syndrome/acute myeloid leukemia (MDS/AML) with epigenetic dysregulation, and NTX-101, a glaucoma treatment.
HONG KONG - Singapore-based biotech Aum Biosciences Pte. Ltd., and Toronto, Canada-based biotech Cyclica Inc. have agreed to work together to apply Cyclica’s drug discovery platform in Aum’s R&D programs for the discovery of potential new cancer therapies. Aum will deploy its drug R&D skills including a biomarker-driven approach while Cyclica will contribute its AI-augmented platforms, Ligand Design and Ligand Express.
Shanghai-based I-Mab Biopharma Co. Ltd. became the first IPO out of the gate this year, pricing its IPO of about 7.4 million American depositary shares (ADSs) – each 10 representing 23 ordinary shares of the company, par value $0.0001 per share – at $14 each, within the planned range of $12 at the low end and $15 at the high. But the stock’s performance might not have been all investors hoped, as shares (NASDAQ:IMAB) closed at $12.50 Jan. 17.
BEIJING – Hong Kong-headquartered Hutchison China Meditech Ltd.’s (Chi-Med) called an early stop to its phase III pivotal study of surufatinib in advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (NET) in China after it met the predefined primary endpoint of progression-free survival.
Unlike with other kinds of cancer, there’s no opportunity for a biopsy ahead of surgery for a suspected brain tumor. To help matters, researchers have developed a novel approach that combines a new, commercially available imaging technology – stimulated Raman histology (SRH) – with an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to offer a diagnosis of brain tumors in just a couple of minutes. They published the results of a study in the Jan. 6, 2020, issue of Nature Medicine that determined their approach was noninferior to standard pathologist interpretation of histologic images.