SHANGHAI – The anti-corruption storm last summer that engulfed much of the biopharmaceutical industry here – with Glaxosmithkline plc at the center – was a game changer for China, primarily due to the amount of information released about the case from the very the beginning, contrary to what one would expect from the usually opaque Chinese government.

HONG KONG – China remains an attractive and generally profitable market for biopharmaceutical companies with the right products.

Sciclone Pharmaceuticals Inc. named Charles Meng general counsel and vice president of compliance. Meng will be based in Shanghai. Meng was general legal counsel and chief compliance officer for Novartis Group, Beijing, in the pharmaceutical division. Prior to that, Meng was chief legal officer of China Bluestar, also in Beijing.

Biondvax Pharmaceuticals Ltd., of Nes Ziona, Israel, received approval from Hong Kong’s patent office to register its patent covering Multimeric Multiepitopes for the company’s universal flu vaccine.

Pharmaessentia Corp., of Taiwan, and Kinex Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Buffalo, N.Y., said they executed a new licensing agreement granting Pharmaessentia exclusive development and commercial rights to Oraxol and Oratecan in Taiwan and Singapore. Kinex will receive an undisclosed up-front payment, milestones and royalties, and Pharmaessentia also agreed to conduct clinical studies in Taiwan to contribute to the global registration programs for the drugs.

Tracking the launch and progression of innovative drugs entering clinical trials in China is a daunting task for biopharmaceutical firms aiming to assess and monitor this rapidly growing market. With this edition, BioWorld Asia introduces what will be a regular source of this vital information: China clinical trials update, below.

Frank Yu wasn’t the most heralded participant at last month’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare (JPM) Conference in San Francisco, the giant partnering confab that draws biotechs, medtechs, pharmas and investors from around the world. Instead, Yu, founder and CEO of the $500 million Hong Kong private equity fund Themes Investment Partners and of the investment firm Ally Bridge Group, preferred to stay under the radar while assessing the pulse of the life sciences industry.

SHANGHAI – The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), a non-profit medicines standard setting body, has expanded its Shanghai laboratories with plans to increase biologics capacity in the near future.

Japanese scientists have added to the understanding of how to improve cell reprogramming, through the identification of two proteins that are active in egg cells to promote a totipotent state. When the proteins, TH2A/TH2B, were added to Yamanaka reprogramming factors, they synergized with those factors, making the generation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells both faster and more efficient.