Cytovant Sciences, a China cell therapy startup, announced a $1 billion partnership with Germany's Medigene to develop four of Medigene's T cell immunotherapy products in China (see story). Cytovant paid $10 million upfront for the products, and agreed to make up to $1 billion plus in milestone payments. Cytovant, headquartered in Hong Kong, is one of the "vant" companies formed by US-based Roivant around a specific purpose. Last year, Roivant formed Sinovant to develop 11 drug candidates in China.

Beijing Miao Jia Medical Information Technology announced a $74.4 million C round to support its "More" online health management company (see story). The funding, completed in late 2018, was led by two China Pacific Insurance companies, Pacific Medical Health Management and CPIC, along with Xiran Capital. Founded in 2015, More is a health management services provider based on big data and artificial intelligence. The company plans to use the proceeds to expand its market and conduct R&D of new products.

Sichuan Haisco Pharma (SZE: 002653) will invest $6 million in eXithera, a US biopharma developing a novel anti-coagulant, and will own China rights to the product (see story). Haisco will be responsible for development, trials, registration and production in China, and it will pay eXithera royalties on any future sales. After the financing, Haisco will own 12.5% of eXithera, a portfolio company of Israel's Clal Biotechnology Industries. Haisco has previously invested in several Israeli medical device companies, including Endospan, MST and Sensible.

Ally Bridge Group, a China-focused life science investor, partnered with LifeTech Scientific (HK: 1302), a China medical device maker, and Quantum Surgical, a French surgical robotics company, to develop a surgical robot platform in China, initially aimed at liver cancer (see story). The Quantum platform is intended to assess and treat a variety of medical conditions, with an emphasis on interventional treatment of early stage liver cancer. Previously, ABG made a Series A investment in Quantum, and it has a partnership with LifeTech.

Government and Regulatory

The Director of the US FDA's Oncology Center of Excellence, Richard Pazdur, MD, publicly urged China pharmas to bring their PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors to the US market, saying they “could potentially be a great thing for everyone because we haven’t seen the major western pharmaceutical companies moving on price,” according to an article in BioCentury (see story). He noted that six PD-1s have been approved in the US and “there are no differences in price.” Dr. Pazdur was speaking from the floor during the Q&A section of a recent American Association for Cancer Research meeting.

For the first time, there is a report that the US government is forcing a US-based healthcare company to divest an investment from a China investor (see story). PatientsLikeMe is a Boston social media company that allows people with a similar disease to communicate with each other. In 2017, the company raised $100+ million from iCarbonX, the AI/big data company formed by Jun Wang, previously CEO of BGI. According to CNBC, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has forced PatientsLikeMe to return the investment. No official report has been released but PatientsLikeMe is said to be looking for a buyer.

Trials and Approvals

Merck (NYSE: MRK) reported its Keytruda PD-1 drug was approved in China for first-line use in patients with metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a potentially blockbuster indication (see story). In a global clinical trial, Keytruda reduced deaths by 50% in lung cancer patients. Previously, Keytruda was approved in China as a second-line treatment for metastatic melanoma, a much smaller market. Opdivo, the Bristol-Myers Squibb PD-1 treatment, was approved last year in China as a second-line treatment.

Novartis (NYSE: NVS) announced that China's NMPA approved Cosentyx® (secukinumab), a first-in-class biologic interleukin-17A (IL-17A) inhibitor for moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis (see story). Cosentyx, which is approved for adult patients who are candidates for systemic therapy or phototherapy, is the ninth new Novartis drug approved in China over the last two years. The company expects to bring ten more novel drugs to the China market during the next few years, including its Kymriah CAR-T treatment for cancer. Novartis expects China will become its third largest market.