HONG KONG – South Korea’s securities exchange operator, Korea Exchange Inc., has relaxed the procedure for tech companies, including biopharma firms, to list on its KOSDAQ board. Under the simplified listing standard, which came into effect on April 26, companies with a market capitalization of ₩500 billion (US$449.26 million) and above will now need to submit only one assessment, with a result of “A” or higher, from a professional evaluation agency.
Cross-border startup Adcentrx Therapeutics Inc., with operations in San Diego and soon in Shanghai, secured $50 million in a series A financing round led by CBC Group to establish its presence in the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) space.
Genome editing startup Edigene Inc. closed a ¥400 million (US$62 million) series B+ round to expand its operation to more cities and advance its lead product ET-01 into clinical trials. The financing follows the $67 million series B that closed in October 2020.
HONG KONG – Pharmcadd Co. Ltd., a developer of an artificial intelligence (AI) and physics-based drug discovery platform, bagged ₩17.3 billion (US$15.5 million) in its series B funding. This brings the total funds raised since its establishment to $22 million.
HONG KONG – Beijing Stonewise Technology Co. Ltd., a med-tech firm that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to aid in the discovery of small molecule drugs, closed series B and B+ financing rounds that added $100 million to its pocket. The company intends to use the proceeds to upgrade its AI-enabled drug discovery platform.
The newly renamed Hutchmed (China) Ltd., previously known as Hutchison China Meditech Ltd. (Chi-Med), plans to sell $100 million of its American depository shares at $30.50 per ADS in a private placement to funds affiliated with Baring Private Equity Asia.
HONG KONG – Onquality Pharmaceuticals LLC raised an additional $20 million from a series A+ financing round, bringing its amount of capital raised to $35 million.
Biopharmas in Asia-Pacific raising money in public or private financings, including: ACM, Bionomics, Delta 4, Humanigen, Hutchison China Meditech, Icosavax.