Deals and Financings

JHL Biotech (TWO: 6540), a Taiwan-China biologics company, signed a $257 million partnership agreement that gives Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) rights to market a JHL clinical-stage rituximab biosimilar, initially for China (see story). Sanofi also invested $80 million in JHL stock. JHL will develop, register and manufacture the biosimilar, while Sanofi will be in charge of commercialization. Rituximab is used to treat autoimmune disorders, cancer and transplant rejection. JHL received approval to start a European Phase I trial of the rituximab biosimilar in February 2016. 

BioAtla, a San Diego-Beijing biotech, will receive over $100 million from Sinobioway of Beijing in a deal that grants Sinobioway greater China rights to four BioAtla drug candidates (see story). The two companies made a final selection of four molecules (which were not disclosed) to include in the collaboration, triggering a $35 million payment that put the deal value over $100 million. Previously, Sinobioway had paid $70 million that included an investment and an upfront payment. BioAtla is developing a portfolio of Conditionally Active Biologic antibody therapeutics, which remain encapsulated until they are released in specific microenvironments. 

Aier Eye Hospital Group (SHZ: 300015) of Changsha will pay $84 million to buy out its partners in nine hospitals, which were acquired by two funds Ayer co-established in 2014 with two Chinese private equity firms (see story). To pay for the transaction, Aier will raise $348 million in a secondary offering, which will also be used to build a new company headquarters, expand its existing facilities and improve its technology infrastructure. Aier operates over 130 ophthalmology hospitals and clinics in China. 

Mandarin Capital Partners, a China private equity firm, paid $17.4 million to acquire a majority stake in an Italian CMO, Mipharm SpA of Milan (see story). Mipharm specializes in making generic drugs and has traditionally had a close relationship with Sandoz, the generic arm of Novartis (NYSE: NVS). Mandarin Capital focuses on European companies and on European businesses that want to expand into China. It closed its second fund, Mandarin Capital Partners II, early this year at $218 million. 

GrandOmics, a Beijing third-generation sequencing company, raised $14 million in an A funding round led by Matrix Partners China and SAIF Partners, and joined by Zero2IPO (see story).  GrandOmics has two divisions, NextOmics for biomedical research and GrandOmics for clinical diagnostics. The company was founded in 2015 by Depeng Wang and Kai Wang, both industry veterans. GrandOmics says the long reads of third-gen sequencing produce more information with fewer errors. 

Beijing's BeiGene (NSDQ: BGNE) will collaborate with Cancer Genetics (NSDQ: CGIX) of New Jersey, a company that develops molecular markers and diagnostics to advance precision medicine in oncology (see story). Cancer Genetics will provide central lab support for BeiGene's clinical trials. It will also identify patient populations that respond to BeiGene's four clinical-stage drug candidates, and it will suggest immunotherapies developed by other biopharmas that may complement BeiGene's own candidates in joint-drug regimens. 

Qiming Venture Partners led a Series B funding in MicroTech Medical, a Hangzhou diabetes medical device company (see story). The size of the funding round was not disclosed. MicroTech offers a blood glucose monitoring system, a patch insulin pump and consumable blood strips. It aims to provide diabetics with accurate equipment at an affordable cost. Lilly Asia Ventures and China China Health Industry Investment Fund, a state-backed firm, invested in MicroTech's initial funding. 

Trials and Approvals

Mederi Therapeutics, a Connecticut medical device maker, received CFDA approval for its Stretta Therapy, a non-surgical treatment for chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) (see story). The Stretta device delivers radiofrequency (RF) energy to the muscle between the stomach and esophagus, remodeling and improving the muscle tissue, which reduces the number of reflux events. Mederi will launch the product in China through its distribution partner, Beijing Kanglian Medical. 

AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) announced positive results from a Phase III trial of Tagrisso in patients with relapsed non-small cell lung cancer (see story). Tagrisso is a third-gen oral epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor that targets NSCLC with the T790M mutation. Although only 10%-15% of NSCLC patients in the west have the mutation, about 50% of cases in China and east Asia do. In the trial, Tagrisso raised the median time-to-progression to 10.1 months from 4.4 months. Tagrisso, which is available in the US as a second-line treatment, is under Fast-Track review in China.