Week In Review: Investor Group Bids $4.6 Billion To Acquire China Biologic

Deals and Financings

• China Biologic Products, a blood products company, received a $4.6 billion takeover offer that is similar to a proposal the company rejected one year ago;
• Shanghai Henlius Pharma, the biologics subsidiary of Fosun Pharma, raised $410 million in its Hong Kong IPO at a market cap of $2.9 billion;
• Shanghai Pharmaceuticals and Russian biopharma Biocad formed a China JV with an initial $250 million to develop six Biocad mAbs in China;
• AllinMD Orthopedics Hospital of Beijing closed a $100 million Series B round to expand its chain of orthopedic hospitals and internet medical care services;
• China's Ping An Insurance led a $15 Million investment in Riverain Technologies, an Ohio company that develops AI imaging software;
• Vision Medicals, a year-old metagenomics company focused on early detection of microbial pathogens, completed a $14 million A funding;
• Beijing's EdiGene raised $11 million in a Series pre-B2 financing to develop novel therapeutics based on gene editing;
• Genecast (Beijing) Biotech partnered with Interpace Diagnostics of New Jersey to offer translational studies and clinical trial diagnostics;

Company News

• Covance, a global drug CRO, opened a new 12,000 square meter R&D center in Shanghai to expand its clinical research services in China;

Trials and Approvals

• Shenzhen Chipscreen announced its NDA for a first-in-class type 2 diabetes treatment was accepted for review in China;
• CASI, a US-China biopharma, reported a China IND for its CD19 CAR-T candidate was accepted;
• Innovent Biologics of Suzhou said its Avastin (bevacizumab) biosimilar produced similar results to the original drug in a double blind Phase III trial.

Industry Insights

• According to a survey of 53 China-focused life science investors, the majority believes the US is the current global leader in life science innovation, but China will just as innovative as the US by 2025.