NEW DELHI – India is taking a multipronged approach to developing and distributing vaccines against COVID-19, with at least 10 different products under development, domestically or through collaborations with foreign developers. Vaccinations are likely to begin early next year but, with a population of around 1.2 billion, it is unlikely India will be able to vaccinate everybody it needs to before the end of 2022.
Shares in Chinese drug developer Jacobio Pharmaceuticals Group Co. Ltd. (HK:1167) rose 3% on their first day of trading in Hong Kong. The company, which develops small-molecule drug candidates to modulate enzymes by binding to their allosteric sites, raised HK$1.35 billion (US$174.1 million) in its IPO, pricing 96 million shares at HK$14. Shares closed at HK$14.42 on Dec. 21 after rising as high as HK$16.50.
HONG KONG – Overland Pharmaceuticals Inc., a company created to bring innovative medicines to China, this week revealed the formation of two joint ventures intended to deliver on that mission, one with ADC Therapeutics SA and another with Allogene Therapeutics Inc.
HONG KONG – Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has received Chinese approval for Takhzyro (lanadelumab), its fully human monoclonal antibody, delivered via subcutaneous injection, for prophylaxis to prevent attacks of hereditary angioedema (HAE) in patients 12 and older.
HONG KONG – Partnerships are reshaping the pharmaceutical industry across Asia, said speakers during day two of the Phar-East 2020 virtual conference. While industry has “tended to have a go-at-it-alone approach,” doing all its discovery, development and commercialization work in-house, “nothing ever came in or out. I think that’s really changed in recent years,” said Kazia Therapeutics Ltd. CEO James Garner.
HONG KONG – New approaches to trials, digitalization and the effective use of advance technologies like artificial intelligence are reshaping how clinical trials are conducted, drugs are discovered, and new devices are developed, said participants at the Asia-focused Phar-East 2020 conference on Dec. 8.
HONG KONG – Taipei, Taiwan-based Pharmaengine Inc. has signed a collaboration and licensing deal with Cambridge, U.K.-based Sentinel Oncology Ltd. for the latter’s checkpoint kinase 1 inhibitor, SOL-578. Through the agreement, Sentinel will receive an exclusivity payment and Pharmaengine will fund the IND-enabling studies.
HONG KONG – Olix Pharmaceuticals Inc. has raised ₩41.5 billion (US$37.90 million) to support the company’s U.S. expansion and advance its pipeline globally.
HONG KONG and BEIJING – Hong Kong-listed China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings Ltd. and Niel, Belgium-based mRNA vaccine specialist Etherna Immunotherapies NV are setting up a joint venture to develop, produce and commercialize mRNA prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines.
3D Medicines Inc. has licensed in from Aravive Inc. a phase Ib-completed GAS6/AXL inhibitor known as AVB-500 in a deal worth up to $219 million. The Chinese firm will have the rights to develop and commercialize the drug candidate across all oncology indications in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
RSS
