PERTH, Australia – Australia’s Atomo Diagnostics Pty. Ltd. is preparing to raise AU$30 million (US$11.7 million) in an initial public offering on Australia’s Securities Exchange (ASX) that will enable it to ramp up manufacturing for rapid self-tests for COVID-19. The Sydney-based company is working with several multinational diagnostics companies to develop the new COVID-19 blood tests, which would be integrated with Atomo’s existing rapid test platform currently used for HIV screening.

BEIJING – Chinese biosimilar maker Bio-Thera Solutions Ltd., of Guangzhou, on Feb. 21 launched a pre-revenue listing on Shanghai’s STAR market to reap $241 million at a valuation of almost $2 billion.

BEIJING – Chinese biosimilar maker Bio-Thera Solutions Ltd., of Guangzhou, on Feb. 21 launched a pre-revenue listing on Shanghai’s STAR market, a Nasdaq-style tech board, to reap $241 million at a valuation of almost $2 billion. Its share price soared more than 83% during its first trading day.

Revolution Medicines Inc. (NASDAQ:RVMD) shares closed at $28.90, a 70% jump above the $17 price in its upsized IPO of 14 million shares, which raised $238 million, showing further confidence in the Redwood City, Calif.-based company’s bid to blast cancer targets once deemed “undruggable.”

BEIJING – Zhongshan-based Akeso Inc., which focuses on bispecific antibodies, is again seeking pre-revenue listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), after its first IPO attempt failed to go through in December. The move comes at a time when analysts believe the coronavirus outbreak is weighing on the city’s IPO market. The second application, submitted on Feb. 3, was again supported by Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan. The clinical-stage biotech is reportedly seeking $300 million to support its R&D through the IPO, particularly its core asset, AK-104, a PD-1/CTLA4 bispecific antibody.

BEIJING – Zhongshan-based Akeso Inc., which focuses on bispecific antibodies, is again seeking pre-revenue listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), after its first IPO attempt failed to go through in December. The move comes at a time when analysts believe the coronavirus outbreak is weighing on the city’s IPO market.

Biotech investors had every reason to feel bullish heading into the new decade. The sector had turned around in 2019 and was riding a wave of a very strong fourth-quarter performance, with the BioWorld Biopharmaceutical Index closing up 14% for the year after being underwater from April through to September. Unfortunately, those great expectations were quickly erased during J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference week (Jan. 10 – Jan. 17), which turned out to be a very low-key affair absent of any blockbuster M&A revelations. As a result, confidence has now given way to concerns about the prospects for biopharmaceutical companies going forward, particularly as unfavorable political rhetoric on drug pricing will certainly be dialed up during this election year.

Wall Street’s enthusiasm ran high for Cambridge, Mass.-based Black Diamond Therapeutics Inc. (BDT), shares of which (NASDAQ:BDTX) closed 108% higher at $39.48, after the company priced its upsized IPO of about 10.5 million shares at $19 each, for gross proceeds of about $201 million. As recently as December, the company pulled down $85 million in a series C financing. BDT’s lead product candidates target oncogenic driver mutations of the ErbB kinases in EGFR and HER2. At the time, the firm noted that it had raised $194 million thus far. With the IPO, which first set sights on 8.9 million shares in the range of $16 to $18 each, the picture grows even brighter.

The final scorecard for med-tech IPOs in 2019 shows that Lake Forest, Calif.-based Inmode Ltd. performed the best since its August debut, while San Diego-based Guardion Health Sciences Inc. lost the most stock value during the year.