SHANGHAI – 2013 was another banner year for biopharmaceutical licensing deals in China, with inbound agreements continuing to grow and outbound transactions showing up noticeably for the first time.
SHANGHAI – Simcere Pharmaceutical Group made headlines in December when it announced plans to go private and delist from the NYSE. As the first Chinese biopharmaceutical company to go public in the U.S. the longtime generics maker – and growing innovative drug developer – is used to taking on pioneering projects, and looks to be at it again.
SHANGHAI – 2013 was another banner year for biopharmaceutical licensing deals in China, with inbound agreements continuing to grow and outbound transactions showing up noticeably for the first time.
HONG KONG – The Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria based in Geneva, was in Shanghai last week initiating talks on how to source directly the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs it distributes to patients in need around the world.
SHANGHAI – Chinese biotech companies are only a small part of the M&A pie in the drug sector here. Although big pharma deals continue to take more than half of all M&A deals in life sciences with 20 percent growth over last year, innovative biotech hardly registers on the scale.
SHANGHAI – Astrazeneca plc, of London, has invested continuously in China’s R&D capabilities over the past seven years and shows no signs of letting up. The latest deal with the newly minted Nephrology and Urology Center, part of the Shenzhen University Health Science Center, will focus on preclinical research for diabetic nephropathy, the damage done to kidneys in late-stage diabetes.
SHANGHAI – Hainan Haiyao Co. Ltd., of Haikou, China, revealed in a regulatory filing that is has some cash to spend and is seeking to buy its way into some new opportunities, with biotechs at the top of its list.
SHANGHAI – Hua Medicine Ltd. has commenced a phase Ib trial for HMS5552, a glucokinase activator (GKA), in early stage type 2 diabetes patients in a multicenter, multidose study in China.
SHANGHAI – There are more bees than flowers in the China biopharma space, with venture capital (VC) interest outstripping the number of early stage companies with novel biologics to develop.
