Neuracle Medical Technology Co. Ltd. is seeking a Shanghai IPO that could make it China’s first publicly listed invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) company, months after winning approval for the country’s first invasive BCI system.

To Ivan Oransky, China’s paper-mill problem is best understood as an incentives story. “This is literally organized crime,” the Retraction Watch co-founder told BioWorld. “Follow the money. When there’s an opportunity to make money, they will find it, and if your whole career is based on how often you publish and what journals you publish in and how often you’re cited, it’s not surprising that leads to bad behavior.”

As China becomes a major source of global clinical trial evidence, the retraction of a high-profile China-led lung cancer study is raising questions about whether journals, regulators and drug developers have adequate systems to validate fast-moving clinical claims.

Astrazeneca plc has returned to China’s CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Ltd. for another discovery collaboration, this time in a deal worth up to $1.77 billion to use CSPC’s siRNA drug discovery platform and extrahepatic targeted delivery technology to develop small nucleic acid drug candidates.

Alebund Pharmaceuticals (Jiangsu) Ltd. was the third Chinese biotech company to debut in Hong Kong this month, with June IPO proceeds from Alebund, Longbio Pharma Co. Ltd. and Shaanxi Micot Pharmaceutical Technology Co. Ltd. totaling about HK$4.7 billion (US$600 million).

Nature Medicine has retracted a widely publicized Chinese lung cancer study that suggested administering immunotherapy before 3 p.m. could dramatically improve survival in a decision that comes amid heightened scrutiny of research integrity and data transparency in high-impact biomedical journals.

The oversubscribed $330 million series B round secured by Ollin Biosciences Inc. marks more than another large venture round in ophthalmology. It also highlights an emerging biotech financing model in which Chinese pharma companies discover and clinically validate promising drugs before handing global development to well-capitalized U.S. startups backed by blue-chip venture investors.

Corxel Pharmaceuticals Ltd.’s oral small-molecule GLP-1 receptor agonist, CX-11, met the primary endpoints in a phase II trial evaluating the candidate in obese and overweight patients in the U.S., according to top-line results.

Nuvectis Pharma Inc.’s shares climbed further after the oncology-focused biotech nabbed select rights to a late-stage complement factor B inhibitor (HSK-39297/NXP-100) and a phase I BRAF inhibitor (HSK-42360/NXP-200) from Haisco Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd. for $40 million up front.

Abbisko Therapeutics Co. Ltd. has entered a research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly and Co. to discover and develop innovative medicines across multiple targets, with the aim of advancing novel drug candidates with global potential.