Mindray Medical (NYSE: MR), a $3.5 billion Shenzhen medical device company, climbed 10% on Thursday following a report in Barron's Deal Reporter that private equity companies approached the company with a privatization proposal (see story). The report cited a unit of China's CITIC bank as one of the interested firms. Mindray hasn't commented, nor has the report been substantiated. Earlier this year, Mindray cut back its 2015 revenue growth forecast to 8.6% from 10%, blaming lower sales in China during the fourth quarter.  

iKang Healthcare (NASQ: KANG) acquired a 70% stake in WA Centers HK Limited, which operates two high-end medical centers in China, one in Shanghai and the other in Beijing (see story). Established in 2010, WA Centers offers anti-aging, functional and regenerative medicine services. The acquisition adds anti-aging services for a high-end clientele to iKang's existing business, which focuses on disease prevention for corporate clients. The price was not disclosed.  

Denovo Biopharma, a San Diego company with a lab in Hangzhou, obtained global rights to a late-stage neuroscience drug from Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) (see story). The drug is Pomaglumetad Methionil (mGlu2/3 receptor agonist), a proposed treatment for schizophrenia. Although the drug failed to meet its endpoints in a Phase III trial, subsets of the enrolled patients had very successful outcomes. Denovo will use its platform to identify genetic biomarkers of these subsets and develop a companion diagnostic, both for the trial and eventual patient use.  

Leica Biosystems, a German company specializing in pathology products, gained exclusive rights to distribute Novacyt’s cervical cancer test, NOVAPrep®, in Greater China (see story). Novacyt is a French medical device maker that develops diagnostics for cancer and infectious diseases. NOVAPrep was recently approved for use in China. Novacyt said marketing the test in China will be "transformative" for the company. 

Featured Companies

In January, Innovent Biologics, a Suzhou biopharma formed in 2011, made a dramatic statement by announcing a large $100 million C series funding (see story). Innovent is committed to producing affordably priced, high quality biologic drugs for China and global markets. The company is developing a portfolio of ten biosimilar and novel biologic drugs, in addition to offering biologic CMO services to global pharmas. Michael Yu, the Co-Founder, President and CEO of Innovent, recently spoke in an exclusive interview with partneringNEWS™, a publication of ChinaBio®'s partner EBD Group. 

Trials and Approvals

Hutchison Chi-Med (AIM: HCM) plans to file two New Drug applications for innovative cancer drugs in 2016, said Christian Hogg, CEO of the company, in an upbeat year-end earnings report (see story). The company expects results from a Phase II trial of fruquintinib as a treatment for colorectal cancer soon, which will trigger a milestone payment from Lilly (NYSE: LLY). It also expects milestones from savolitinib, a treatment for kidney and gastric cancer that is out-licensed to AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) later in 2015. Chi-Med will file for China approval of fruquintinib and US approval of savolitinib.  

China Wanbang Biopharma successfully completed the toxicology study of an oral SGLT2 Inhibitor treatment for type 2 diabetes (see story). One year ago, Wanbang in-licensed China rights to the drug from Canada's Sirona Biochem (TSX: SBM), which is now due a milestone payment as part of the $9.5 million deal between the two companies. According to Sirona, the molecule was well tolerated, even at significantly higher doses than a reference SGLT2 inhibitor. Wanbang, a division of Fosun Pharma (SHA: 600196; HK: 02196), focuses on diabetes and cardiovascular drugs.

Government and Regulatory

China formally accepted the Biosimilar Approval process that was issued in draft form last fall, making only minor alterations to the plan (see story). The government also said it would discontinue issuing price controls on drugs. The changes were released as part of an annual government policy disclosure by China's Premier, Li Keqiang, as China's National People's Conference, the nation's legislature, began its annual two-week session. 

In a statement released over the weekend, China's State Council decreed that all China hospitals must buy their drugs only through provincial pharmaceutical procurement platforms (see story). In addition, hospitals are required to make payments directly to logistics companies, not intermediaries. The goal is to prevent purchases from illegitimate suppliers that sell unapproved products or cannot deliver on a contract. The new policies also seek to stamp out the use of bribery to obtain contracts. 

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