HONG KONG – By 2017, the global pharmaceutical market will be worth $1.2 trillion and $250 billion will come from Asia. Those large sums of money should create multiple opportunities for investors that understand the nuances of the region, said industry insiders gathered here.
SHANGHAI – Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co. Ltd. released positive phase III data for apatinib at American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting last week and is now waiting for the good word from the CFDA for marketing approval in China. Apatinib, a molecular targeted therapy for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer has been shown to be associated with improved survival in patients with prior failure to second line chemotherapy.
HONG KONG – A number of relatively young biopharma companies plan to issue shares on China's stock markets over the next few months, prompted by the lifting late last year of a ban on new issues.
SHANGHAI – It is no secret that China is heavy on generics and light on innovation. But what happens when a successful drug maker with deep pockets and a visionary chairman decide to take on drug discovery? Haiyan Pharmaceutical Technology Co. Ltd., the drug development subsidiary of the Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group (YRP), and its team of executive returnees are set to prove that innovation can be implanted anywhere, even in a risk adverse generics maker.
SHANGHAI – Hutchinson China Meditech Ltd. (Chi-Med) has struck a new deal with its joint venture partner of 13 years, Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Co. Ltd. (STCM), to exclusively sell six prescription drugs in China. Chi-Med's commercial operations help to fund its extensive R&D efforts with seven candidates in the clinic for oncology, immunology and inflammation.
SHANGHAI – Glaxosmithkline plc has confirmed the company is under investigation by the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO). The case is presumed to be related to the almost year-long corruption investigation into GSK China activities that came to a close last week. UK's largest drugmaker is facing ever more serious legal troubles in its own backyard as the big pharma and its executives are awaiting trial here.
SEOUL, South Korea – With one eye firmly planted on future economic growth, South Korea is taking steps to boost its biotechnology industry by putting resources into a wide range of traditional and emerging subsectors from biosimilars to stem cell treatments.
Macrogenics Inc. enticed another big pharma partner to the table with a candidate from its Dual-Affinity Re-Targeting, or DART platform. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Osaka, Japan, took an option to develop and commercialize MGD010, a preclinical asset targeting autoimmune diseases, that uses DART to simultaneously engage the B-cell surface proteins CD32B and CD79B.
SEOUL, South Korea – Promising as the biosimilar market appears today, a consolidation that leaves only a handful of global players may be inevitable and the prospects may not be as rosy as they seem, said drug company executives at Bio Korea 2014.
Zydus Group, of Ahmedabad, India, said it started phase III trials of Lipaglyn (saroglitazar) in patients with lipodystrophy, with the goal of evaluating the drug's safety and efficacy vs. standard of care with placebo. Lipaglyn previously gained approval in India for treating diabetic dyslipidemia and hypertriglyceridemia.
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