The Hong Kong biotech sector saw record growth this year, expanding 13%, fueled largely by investment in innovation ranging from CRISPR gene editing tools, cell therapies and artificial intelligence in drug discovery, speakers at the BIO Hong Kong conference said Sept. 10.

China was already making strides to lead the biotechnology industry in many key areas such as cell therapies and AI, but the chaotic nature of the Trump administration and the turmoil in the U.S. has catapulted China’s status as a more “dependable” partner, presenters said during the Bio Hong Kong conference, Sept. 10 to 13.

“The comment I hear a lot from scientists … is that science has no borders,” Arif Noorani, partner at Sidley Austin LLP, said while addressing the panel audience at Asia Bio 2025 in Singapore. “I agree, but the reality is, we do have a lot of borders.”

South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced Sept. 12 plans to significantly raise drug application fees for biosimilars but slash their review times starting next year.

CSL Ltd. inked a potential $2.1 billion deal with Dutch biotech company Varmx BV to develop VMX-C001 as a new treatment to restore blood coagulation in patients taking a factor Xa inhibitor.

Braveheart Bio Inc. is paying $65 million up front to license Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.’s oral hypertrophic cardiomyopathy drug candidate called HRS-1893.

Argo Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. and its RNAi work drew Novartis AG back to the table for a third time, as the companies entered a potential $5.2 billion deal involving cardiovascular-focused assets, including a right to first negotiation for BW-00112, an angiopoietin-like protein 3-targeting siRNA in phase II testing in severe hypertriglyceridemia.

Epigenic Therapeutics Co. Ltd. closed a $60 million series B round to support clinical development of lead gene therapy candidates EPI-003 for chronic hepatitis B virus and EPI-001 for hypercholesterolemia.

“New explosions in biotechnology are allowing us to interrogate cancers at a very sophisticated level compared to before,” Dennis Slamon told audience members at the Global Bio Conference in Seoul, South Korea Sept. 3.

Argenica Therapeutics Ltd. saw its stock drop 56% following mixed results for its ARG-007 phase II Seancon trial in acute ischemic stroke patients undergoing endovascular revascularization, or thrombectomy.