Week In Review: Suzhou Innovent Raises $300 Million To Develop New Products

Deals and Financings

• Suzhou Innovent Biologics raised $300 million in a secondary offering to develop three in-licensed products from Incyte and two first-in-class bispecifics; 
• Shanghai Hrain Biotechnology, a clinical-stage immunoncology company, completed a $28 million Series B round led by Shenzhen Capital; 
• CanSino Biologics of Tianjin acquired China rights to a portfolio of inherited retinal disease treatments being developed by US-based Ocugen;
• Singapore's Aslan Pharma formed a JV with Bukwang Pharma of Korea to develop Aslan's AhR immunoncology candidates;

Trials and Approvals

• Merck/MSD announced China approval of Keytruda, its PD-1 immunotherapy, as a first-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer without chemotherapy;
• I-Mab Biopharma, a Shanghai-US company, was granted China approval to start clinical trials of a novel CD73 antibody, to treat solid tumors; 
• IASO Bio of Nanjing and Innovent announced their jointly developed CAR-T therapy was approved to start China trials for multiple myeloma;
• Clover, a Chengdu biotech, started a China Phase I trial of its TRAIL-Trimer fusion protein in patients with malignant ascites, the candidate's fourth trial.