BEIJING – You’re not in the circle if you’re not talking China. That’s one Chinese venture capitalist’s take on things. His colleagues were optimistic and confident, too, as they described the biopharmaceutical investment landscape in a panel focused on early stage VC funding at BIO’s Convention here Wednesday.

BEIJING – Negotiating partnering or joint venture deals can be challenging under any circumstances. In China, the process is exacerbated by cultural differences, mistrust, disparate negotiating styles and, most visibly, disjointed views of compliance requirements.

Despite misgivings about the adequacy and controls of two open-label Phase III trials in evaluating Genzyme Corp.’s Lemtrada in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), the Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee seemed to support approval of the drug, but not as a first-line therapy and only with a strong risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS).

The Merck Serono arm of Merck KGaA is paying an undisclosed up-front payment and could hand over as much as €170 million (US$228 million) more in development and commercial milestones for ex-China rights to Beigene Co. Ltd.’s preclinical poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor, Beigene-290.

Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc. launched the first of two Phase III trials of its investigational drug for chronic idiopathic constipation, plecanatide.

• Bioasis Technologies Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia, said new research in animals conducted under its BT2111 program showed that the drug, a conjugate of Herceptin (trastuzumab, Roche AG), not only crosses the blood-brain barrier, but also penetrates the blood-tumor barrier up to 10 times better than Herceptin alone.

• Galectin Therapeutics Inc., of Norcross, Ga., said five of the eight patients have been enrolled and infused in the first cohort of its blinded Phase 1 trial of GR-MD-02 for patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH or fatty liver disease) with advanced fibrosis.

• Dendreon Corp., of Seattle, said it is implementing another round of cost-cutting measures following a third quarter earnings miss.

• Helsinn Group, of Lugano, Switzerland, said it granted Chugai Pharma Marketing Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, exclusive commercialization rights to Phase III-stage ghrelin receptor agonist, anamorelin, in Germany, France, Benelux, UK and Ireland.