Last January, BioWorld Insight asked whether, after a long bumpy road, RNA therapeutics could prosper in 2013. With a few exceptions, the answer was a resounding yes. (See BioWorld Insight, Jan. 7, 2013.)

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HONG KONG – One of China’s largest chemicals producers is stepping into the biotech space via its acquisition of a hepatitis B vaccine maker. The deal comes at a sensitive time for the sector following the deaths of at least seven children blamed on those vaccines and ongoing probes into the quality of vaccine manufacturing.

U.S. biopharmaceutical companies capped 2013 with the strongest quarter of the year, raising $835 million in 37 venture capital deals in the fourth quarter according to data compiled by BioWorld Snapshots.