HONG KONG – Canadian company Pascal Biosciences Inc., headquartered in Vancouver, and South Korean biotech Y-biologics Inc., based in Daejeon, have signed a research collaboration agreement for the discovery and development of bispecific antibodies for the treatment of leukemia.

South Korean AI-based biotech Azoth Bio Inc., of Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, and biopharmaceutical venture Wellmarker Bio Co. Ltd., based in Seoul, have signed a memorandum of understanding for cancer drug R&D and commercialization.

HONG KONG – South Korean biotech company Qurient Co. Ltd. has inked a joint venture (JV) foundation deal involving Germany's Max Planck Society (MPG), of Munich, and Lead Discovery Center GmbH (LDC) in Dortmund, as well as the 1988 Nobel laureate and biochemist Robert Huber.

HONG KONG – One of South Korea's biggest pharmaceutical companies by market capitalization, GC Pharma Corp., based in Yong-in, Gyeonggi-do, and the Cambridge, Mass.-based U.S. biotech Vaxess Technologies Inc., have partnered to globally commercialize a flu vaccine patch based on Vaxess' Mimix Smart Release Patch technology.

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 – Insilico Medicine Hong Kong Ltd. has inked a two-program drug discovery collaboration agreement with Jiangsu Chia Tai Fenghai Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (CTFH), of Jiangsu, China. The deal will focus on drug discovery and development for previously undruggable oncology targets through Insilico's artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled platform.

The number of biopharma deals and mergers and acquisitions completed are on a downward slide quarter-by-quarter, although when taken as a whole, the industry in 2019 has completed as many transactions and is hitting a higher deal value than the year before, while M&A values are up by 32%.

HONG KONG – Singapore's Aslan Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and South Korea's Bukwang Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. have jointly established a new company dedicated to the development of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) drug candidates. Named Jaguahr Therapeutics Pte. Ltd. – the unusual spelling a clear reference to "AhR" – it will be based in Singapore and will focus on developing immuno-oncology therapeutics for global markets based on the preclinical AhR antagonists in Aslan's early stage pipeline.

CEO Mark McKenna told BioWorld Asia that San Diego-based Prometheus Biosciences Inc. has "cracked the code" in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) – progress underscored by the firm's deal with Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, which brings an undisclosed up-front payment and as much as $420 million more if development, regulatory and commercial milestones are reached in three programs.