Cansino Biologics Inc. launched its second pre-revenue share offering on Aug. 13, reaping ¥5.2 billion ($749 million) from Shanghai’s STAR market. Trading under the ticker 688185, its shares surged 87.5% to close at ¥393 on the first trading day. The company, currently developing 16 vaccine candidates for 13 infectious diseases, has grabbed headlines this year for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Ad5-nCoV, which is due to enter phase III trials in Saudi Arabia shortly.
HONG KONG – The recent approval of all-oral hepatitis C virus (HCV) drug RDV/DNV, a combination of Asclevir (ravidasvir) and Ganovo (danoprevir), helped boost shares of Ascletis Pharma Inc. (HK:1672), which ended July with a 10% jump to HK$3.36 (US43 cents), as the Hangzhou, China-based company continues to push its pipeline of treatments forward and improve its outlook.
HONG KONG – Osaka, Japan-based Shionogi & Co Ltd. continues to make global inroads with its influenza treatment, Xofluza (baloxavir marboxil), submitting supplemental new drug applications in Japan and Taiwan for a post-exposure prophylaxis indication on the back of positive results from its phase III trials.
PERTH, Australia – The University of Queensland’s Centre for Superbug Solutions has discovered a new class of antibiotics that has garnered an award from Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X).
The two-year standstill provision in Assembly Biosciences Inc.’s potential $540 million pact with Beigene Ltd. to advance hepatitis B virus (HBV) therapies was “highly negotiated,” said Jason Okazaki, Assembly’s chief legal and business officer.
LONDON – Twenty-three pharma companies are joining forces in the AMR Action Fund and have raised $1 billion in new money for the clinical development of antibiotic drugs.
BEIJING – Three-year-old Asia-focused startup Everest Medicines Ltd. closed one of the biggest financing rounds in China’s health care market this year, adding $310 million to its war chest. The firm is aiming to advance its late-stage assets in-licensed from global partners to the China market soon.
“Vaccines, obviously, are the ultimate solution for pandemics,” Rino Rappuoli told BioWorld. They have, he added, “already eliminated a lot of pandemic threats – smallpox, influenza, poliomyelitis.”
There will be lessons learned aplenty when the COVID-19 pandemic finally breaks, including how serological and molecular testing can be used to maximum effect to corral a future pandemic.
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