Chinese biotech startup Affamed Therapeutics Ltd., funded by CBC Group, has merged with biopharmaceutical company Everinsight Therapeutics Inc., five days after it licensed in a dopamine agonist, KDT-3594, for Parkinson's disease from Japan’s Kissei Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

HONG KONG – Yongin, South Korea-based Rznomics Inc. is on track to develop adenoviruses for gene therapies, after signing a clinical and commercial agreement with Cologne, Germany based-Cevec Pharmaceuticals GmbH. The partnership will use the German company’s Cap technology to manufacture the adenoviruses, while the therapies, targeting various cancer indications, will be developed using Rznomics’ trans-splicing ribozyme technology.

HONG KONG – South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) has approved an additional indication for CT-P59, Incheon-based Celltrion Inc.’s anti-COVID-19 monoclonal antibody.

PERTH, Australia – Astrazeneca plc is leasing 175 Sozo devices from Impedimed Ltd. and plans to put them in 20 countries to run phase II trials for a combination drug that looks at fluid imbalance in the human body in patients with heart failure (HF) and chronic kidney disease.

BEIJING – Three-year-old startup Everest Medicines Ltd. (1952.HK) sold 63 million shares at HK$55 apiece to raise HK$3.49 billion (US$451 million) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Oct 9. Shares were oversubscribed by 654 times in Hong Kong.

HONG KONG – Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. has won regulatory approval for Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) in Japan based on a pivotal phase II trial alone. The HER2-directed antibody-drug conjugate has been approved for the treatment of patients with HER2-positive unresectable advanced or recurrent gastric cancer that has progressed after chemotherapy.