Suzhou, China-headquartered Ascentage Pharma Group Corp. Ltd. has filed plans for a confidential IPO to the U.S. SEC for a potential dual listing on both the U.S. and Hong Kong stock exchanges. News of the U.S. IPO came just a few days after Ascentage drew a $75 million equity investment from Osaka, Japan-headquartered Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. with the issuance of about 24.3 million shares at a purchase price of HK$24.09 (US$3.08) per share. Read More
Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd announced it will buy out partner Shanghai Henlius Biotech Inc. for up to HKD$5.4 billion (US$691.7 million), according to a joint announcement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Read More
Innovent Biologics Inc.’s glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor and glucagon receptor dual agonist, mazdutide, saw 80% reduction in liver fat content in patients with more than 10% liver fat content in the phase III Glory-1 obesity trial. Read More
Aprilbio Co. Ltd. saw its stock surge 30% June 20 after announcing a potential $475 million (₩655.88 billion) deal with Evommune Inc. for autoimmune disease drug candidate APB-R3. Read More
China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approved Dizal Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s golidocitinib for treating adults with relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma whose disease has progressed or was refractory to at least one prior systemic therapy. Read More
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is progressing mezagitamab to phase III trials after the CD38 monoclonal antibody showed rapid and sustained increases in platelet counts in patients with persistent or chronic primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) in a phase IIb trial. Read More
France’s Théa Open Innovation, a subsidiary of Laboratoires Théa SAS, terminated its licensing agreement with South Korea’s Olix Pharmaceuticals Inc., and returned global rights of Olix’s ocular small interfering RNA (siRNA) biologic agents, OLX-301D and OLX-301A. Read More
Preliminary data show Biotron Ltd.’s lead compound BIT-225 met the primary objectives of the phase II BIT225-011 trial, a longitudinal, open-label trial designed to characterize the effect of the compound added to ongoing, suppressive antiretroviral therapy in HIV-1-infected, treatment-experienced patients who achieved only partial immune reconstitution. Read More
The U.S. FDA has approved the NDA for Sofdra (sofpironium) for treating excessive underarm sweating from Botanix Pharmaceuticals Ltd. The approval was based on two pivotal phase III studies and is approved for those ages 9 and older. Read More
Following a day of deals that collectively bring a potential $3.75 billion into three biopharma companies – namely Ascidian Therapeutics Inc., Belharra Therapeutics Inc. and Mabcare Therapeutics – researchers will be busy discovering new therapies for neurological and immunological diseases, and advancing globally a candidate for solid tumors. Read More
The annual Companies to Watch report, which was just released, looks closely at seven companies flying under the radar that are developing antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for treating cancer. Companies examined in the new report are Adcendo ApS, Araris Biotech AG, Go Therapeutics Inc., Heidelberg Pharma AG, Pheon Therapeutics Ltd., Tallac Therapeutics Inc. and Tubulis GmbH. Read More
In May, the U.S. FDA approved 11 new drugs, a significant drop from the 26 approvals in April, which was the sixth-highest monthly total since 2016. This also falls short of March’s record-setting 30 approvals, the highest number recorded by BioWorld. Read More
Clinical updates from Asia, including trial initiations, enrollment status and data readouts and publications: Clover, Carsgen, Daewoong, Hightide, Hutchmed, Takeda. Read More
Biopharma happenings in Asia-Pacific including deals and partnerships, grants, preclinical data and other news in brief: Alivexis, Ionis, Kactus, Melodia, Otsuka, Yoltech Read More
Regulatory snapshots, including drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations in Asia-Pacific: Dizal, Innocare, Junshi, Medilink. Read More
