Salubris Biotherapeutics Inc. has raised $32 million in financing from its parent company, Shenzhen Salubris Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., for the development of its cardiovascular candidate. Funds will be used to continue efforts in an ongoing phase Ib trial and to initiate two additional phase Ib studies in 2022, as well as to expand the company’s pipeline.
Bridge Biotherapeutics Inc. has signed an exclusive option-to-license agreement for Cellionbiomed Inc.’s preclinical ion channel modulator, BBT-301, thus adding a second idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) candidate to its fibrotic diseases portfolio. The company hopes to enter the clinic with the drug in the U.S. by the end of 2022.
Three U.S.-listed China-based biopharmas were among five companies named this week by the U.S. SEC for reportedly failing to submit necessary accounting reports under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (HFCAA).
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently issued a provisional list of five U.S.-listed Chinese companies that reportedly failed to submit necessary accounting reports required under Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act. The list included three biopharmas: Beigene Ltd., Hutchmed Ltd., and Zai Lab Ltd.
Chinese state-owned enterprise China Meheco Group Co. Ltd. has signed a deal with Pfizer Inc. to be its mainland China partner for the commercialization of the COVID-19 pill Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir and ritonavir), which won conditional approval from China’s NMPA earlier this year.
Huadong Medicine Co. Ltd.’s wholly owned subsidiary Hangzhou Zhongmei Huadong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has acquired Asia-Pacific rights to two drugs from Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals Ltd. in a deal worth up to $662 million. “This collaboration aims to bring Kiniksa’s therapeutics to patients in the Asia Pacific Region suffering from severe autoimmune and inflammatory diseases,” said Sanj Patel, chairman and CEO of Kiniksa. “The collaboration also provides nondilutive capital, cost-sharing, and resources for clinical trials to accelerate our drug development and commercialization efforts.”
Chinese investment in U.S. companies is dropping, but Chinese biopharma firms are increasingly eyeing licensing deals on early stage inventions patented by U.S. universities, Lin Sun-Hoffman, founding partner at Liu, Chen & Hoffman LLP, said during a Feb. 24 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office webinar on biopharma patents in China.
The EU initiated a dispute complaint with the World Trade Organization over China’s intellectual property (IP) enforcement allowing Chinese courts to block infringement litigation worldwide. The Feb. 18 complaint, posted by the WTO last week, takes issue with Chinese courts issuing global injunctions barring patent holders from asserting their rights through legal proceedings in other countries until the case is settled in China.
Lepu Biopharma Co. Ltd. started trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday, raising HK$904 million ($115.9 million) in an initial public offering. Trading opened at HK$7.13 per share and slid to HK$6.70 by midday before closing at HK$7.13.
Odeon Therapeutics Inc. has acquired rights to two cancer candidates from Obi Pharma Inc. in a deal worth up to $200 million. The transaction gives Shanghai-based Odeon rights to develop, register, and commercialize the antibody-drug conjugate OBI-999 and a therapeutic cancer vaccine OBI-833 in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau.
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