HONG KONG – Singapore's Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Lucence Diagnostics Pte. Ltd. have teamed up to develop a next-generation decision support tool for liver cancer patients. The visualization tool, known as Liver3D, was designed to reduce the risks associated with liver cancer surgery. It does so by developing machine learning models based on radiology images of liver cancer patients for clinical decision support.

HONG KONG – Upin & Co. Ltd., a fund and asset management company headquartered in London, plans to invest a total of KRW2 trillion (US$1.7 billion) over three years in the South Korean biopharma industry.

HONG KONG – Kobiolabs Inc., a microbiome-based venture from Seoul, South Korea, has secured a KRW26.6 billion (US$22.2 million) investment. Founded in 2014, the venture has achieved KRW193 billion of enterprise value.

Australian researchers have developed the first potent new small-molecule inhibitors capable of blocking the activation of apoptotic cell death before it causes damage to mitochondria, they reported in a study published in the Oct. 7, 2019, issue of Nature Chemical Biology.

Days after going public, Viela Bio Inc. nailed down a deal with Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. to develop and commercialize Viela’s humanized anti-CD19 monoclonal antibody, inebilizumab, in nine Asia regions for the rare disease called neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD), as well as other potential future indications.

HONG KONG – South Korean pharmaceutical company Chong Kun Dang Holdings recently invested KRW5 billion (US$4.1 million) in Biorchestra Co. Ltd., a Korean startup based in Daejeon that aims to develop Alzheimer’s dementia treatment based on microRNA.

Botanix Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Sydney, said it was awarded an AU$50,000 (US$33,788) Innovation Connections Grant from the Australian government to accelerate its medicinal chemistry program targeting the creation of synthetic analogues of cannabidiol and the investigation of cannabidiol's antimicrobial activity. 

HONG KONG – South Korea's 3billion Inc., a rare genetic diseases diagnosis startup based in Seoul, has secured ?11.4 billion (US$9.6 million) in a series B investment. The company was founded in 2016 as a spinoff of Macrogen Inc., a Seoul-based genetic sequencing biotech, and raised ?3 billion in a series A funding last year.

Australian digital medication management company Medadvisor Ltd. raised AU$17 million (US$11.4 million) via an oversubscribed placement in which U.S. health care solution provider HMS Holdings Corp. was a cornerstone investor, putting up $11 million and becoming the firm's largest shareholder with a 13% stake in the digital health company.

HONG KONG – Upin & Co. Ltd., a fund and asset management company headquartered in London, plans to invest a total of KRW2 trillion (US$1.7 billion) over three years in the South Korean biopharma industry. The U.K. company will use a European fund and human resources network to organize the K-Bio Medical Development Fund (KBMDF), which will include funds of KRW300 billion for the first round, KRW700 billion for the second, and KRW1 trillion for the third round.