Week In Review: China Biopharma Announces Nearly $3 Billion In Deals

• Vivo Capital, a US-China healthcare investor, raised $1.3 billion for its ninth fund, bringing its assets under management to more than $4.3 billion; 
• Hansoh Pharma staged a very successful $1 billion Hong Kong IPO, pricing at the top the range, and then rising 37% in its first trading session;
• Zai Lab, a Shanghai-US biopharma, entered a $205 million agreement to acquire China rights to a treatment for GIST and other solid tumors;
• China's Everest Medicines signed a $121 million pact for China rights to Nefecon, a chronic autoimmune kidney disease treatment, from Sweden's Calliditas;
• Tessa Therapeutics of Singapore will form a $120 million JV with Guangzhou Knowledge City to develop Tessa's oncology cell therapies in China; 
• Oncologie, a Boston-Shanghai biopharma, raised $80 million in a Series B funding to support biomarker driven in-licensing of oncology assets; 
• GT Apeiron Therapeutics, a Shanghai novel biotech, was launched and formed a discovery collaboration with Exscientia, a UK AI drug discovery company; 
• Shanghai's Brii Bioscience acquired China rights to as many as three infectious disease candidates from Artizan Biosciences of Yale University;
• Deepwise, a Beijing-Hangzhou AI-based medical imaging diagnostics company, completed a Series C round of undisclosed size;

Government and Regulatory

• China launched the new Shanghai High Tech Board with 27 China biopharmas (out of a total 119 companies) signed up to IPO on the exchange;

Trials and Approvals

• Reistone, a one-year-old Shanghai-Beijing-Boston biopharma, dosed the first patient in a global Phase II trial of its JAK1 inhibitor in patients with IBD; 
• Terns Pharma, a Silicon Valley-Shanghai company, started a US Phase I clinical trial of TERN-101 to treat non-alcoholic steatohepatitis; 
• CStone Pharma of Suzhou will test its PD-L1 monoclonal antibody in combination with Bayer Healthcare's Stivarga® to treat gastric cancer; 
• Xynomic, a US-China oncology pharma, completed a pre-IND meeting with the US FDA for its pan-RAF inhibitor for colorectal cancer.