Tianjin CanSino Biologics, a vaccine developer, raised $65 Million in its latest funding round (see story). Currently, CanSino is testing four products in Phase I to III clinical trials,  conducted in North America, Africa and China respectively. It also has three IND submissions awaiting CFDA trial approvals. The latest CanSino financing was led by Future Industry Investment Fund, a private equity fund managed by state-owned SDIC Fund Management. 

Shaanxi Kanghui Pharmaceutical (SHA: 603139) raised $52 million in a Shanghai exchange IPO (see story). Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Xianyang, Kanghui has developed more than 100 products in a number of therapeutic areas. The company recorded a 2016 operating profit of $10 million on revenues of $55 million. Kanghui makes 16 exclusive products, which it sells to more than 2,000 China hospitals, and owns 19 patents. The online portion of the IPO received offers for almost 4000 times the number of shares available. 

Qiming US Healthcare Fund led a $25 million Series B funding in ZappRx, a Boston company offering an automated specialty drug prescribing service (see story). China's Qiming announced the $125 million US fund in January of this year. ZappRx said its platform is currently being used in several US academic medical centers and large multi-specialty practices. The specialty drug market, which involves ordering several products for combination regimens, is expected to reach $400 billion by 2020, according to ZappRx. 

China's Aier Eye Hospital Group (SZE: 300015) agreed to pay $166 million to acquire a 59% stake in Clínica Baviera, S.A., a Spanish company with ophthalmology clinics in Spain, France and Germany (see story). Aier says the deal would make it the largest ophthalmology group in the world. Aier made the offer to six insiders who own 69% of Clinica Baviera. Three insiders and some management decided to retain 10% of the company. Aier also intends to buy the outstanding 41% of the company three years from now. 

Zhejiang POCTech Medical Corp, a company that makes a Continuous Glucose Monitoring device along with other medical devices, closed a $14.5 million Series B funding (see story). The funding was led by Bioventure Investment Management and Tasly Great Health Industry Fund. The two lead investors also made an undisclosed investment in Kailian Medical, another diabetes device maker that is a strategic partner of POCTech. They intend to merge POCTech and Kailian. 

Qiang Sen International Community Medical (QSICM) raised $14.5 million in a Series B round for its community clinic franchise business (see story). Based in Xianyang city in Shaanxi province, QSICM operates 20 clinics in Xi'an and Chengdu. The company plans to have 35 clinics at the end of the year, and ultimately, it wants to have 1000 clinics nationwide. Qiming Venture Partners and Legend Capital led the B round. Legend also participated in the Series A funding, whose size was not disclosed. 

Suzhou Ribo Life Science entered a broad collaboration with Ionis Pharma (NSDQ: IONS) of San Diego to develop RNA therapeutics (see story). The agreement has multiple parts: Ribo in-licensed China rights for two Ionis second-gen antisense candidates, one in metabolic disease and the other a cancer drug, and it optioned a third; Ribo will also use Ionis' ssRNAi technology to discover additional drugs. Ribo will make an undisclosed upfront payment to Ionis and also grant equity to Ionis. Last month, Ribo raised $39 million in a Series B funding led by China's State Development and Investment Corp. 

Chengdu's HitGen entered a multi-year research collaboration and license agreement to build and screen novel DNA-encoded libraries (DELs) with Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) (see story). The collaboration aims to discover unique small molecule leads for drug development, though the companies did not disclose any particular disease target. HitGen is on a roll. In the last three months, it has announced three collaborations: Cancer Research UK (lung cancer) (see story), Merck/MSD (NYSE: MRK) (Merck designated targets) (see story), and now Pfizer. 

Antengene, a one-year old Shanghai start-up, in-licensed China and East Asian rights to a Celgene (NSDQ: CELG) cancer candidate (see story). Celgene's TORC1/2 inhibitor is currently in several US Phase I trials in combination with other drugs as a treatment for various cancers. The Founder and Chairman of Antengene, Jay Mei, PhD, previously worked for Celgene and spearheaded China trials of Celgene's Revlimid, the thalidomide-based treatment for multiple myeloma. The agreement was called a strategic partnership, which may imply Antengene will license more Celgene drugs in the future. 

Trials and Approvals

BeiGene (NSDQ: BGNE), a Beijing oncology company, dosed the first patient in a pivotal China Phase II trial of its PD-1 candidate in patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) (see story). Late in 2016, BeiGene began a trial of BGB-A317 in China patients with solid tumor cancers. BeiGene, which has administered the PD-1 drug to more than 400 patients, has been approved to test the drug in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Taiwan. 

Industry Insights 

The future for China healthcare may have been discovered in Sanming, a smaller city located in Fujian Province on China's southeast coast (see story). In 2011, the metropolitan area, whose healthcare system suffered from much the same difficulties as other China cities, was also facing a specific problem: one of its insurance funds was running a large deficit. Instead of addressing that issue as a standalone difficulty, Sanming decided it would attempt a comprehensive reform. It would consider matters such as drug pricing, unequal coverage of individual insurance plans, hospital revenue structure and salaries for health workers. It found that these seemingly separate, fairly difficult problems were in fact interrelated. By aiming for a comprehensive solution, it moved towards a healthcare delivery system that solved its immediate problem and some long-term structural difficulties. It seems to work better for everyone.