A tightening of rules for biotech listings on the Shanghai STAR Market may have contributed to a visible cool-down in biotech IPOs, with fewer listings in Chinese stock markets in the first half of 2022.

China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approved Ocumension Therapeutics Ltd.’s and Eyepoint Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s drug-device combination product, Yutiq (fluocinolone acetonide intravitreal implant), for chronic non-infectious uveitis affecting the posterior segment of the eye.

Meta Pharmaceuticals Inc. has raised $15 million in seed and pre-series A rounds in six months for the pipeline and AI platform development. Shenzhen, China-based Meta Pharma plans to use the new funds to support its three candidates to enter clinical trials, as well as the development of its Meta-map platform for pipeline expansion.

China will continue to ramp up volume-based procurement (VBP) policies that bring down drug and device prices for public hospitals with volume. Governmental agencies at the local and national levels coordinate drug prices via government-organized procurement programs that include VBP and pricing negotiations for inclusion on the National Reimbursable Drug List.

Everest Medicines Ltd. has picked up its first marketing approval in China for Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan), a medicine licensed from Gilead Sciences Inc. It was approved to treat adults with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic triple-negative breast cancer who have received two or more prior systemic therapies, at least one of them for metastatic disease.

Shanghai Henlius Biotech Inc.’s anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody serplulimab has generated positive data in a phase III trial as a first-line treatment for extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC).