Deals and Financings

• Miaoshou Doctor, an online-offline healthcare company headquartered in Beijing, closed an $85 million Series D1 round (see story). Founded in 2015, the company says its focus is on "healthcare-medication-insurance." The company has raised at least $70 million in each of several C rounds and attained the unicorn $1 billion valuation.
• Immvira Group, a Shenzhen biotech developing oncolytic virus therapies, completed a $58 million Series B financing (see story). In May, the company announced US approval to start a trial of its lead product, T3011, an intratumoral injection that encodes IL12 and anti-PD-1. The B round was led by Huagai Capital, with participation by Apricot Capital, Cowin Capital and the lead investor from a previous round, presumably Hillhouse.
• eTheRNA, a Belgian biotech, raised $38 million in a Series B round to fund its immuno-oncology pipeline with two new China investors participating (see story). Grand Decade, a subsidiary of China Grand Pharma and Yijing Capital both contributed. eTheRNA is also working on a pan-coronavirus mRNA-based vaccine that is expected to begin clinical trials next year.
• Engrail Therapeutics, a San Diego-area neurological in-licensing company, raised $32 million in a Series A round with all the funds coming from Nan Fung Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Hong Kong property developer Nan Fung Group (see story). Engrail characterized Nan Fung's support as long term, with the parent having made a commitment to invest $1.5 billion in the Fund. 
• Shukun Technology of Beijing raised $28 million in a B-1 Round to develop its AI-based diagnostic scanning systems (see story). The company's products are aimed at improving the efficiency of medical professionals' work and the level of diagnosis and treatment in primary hospitals. 
• Cygnus Biosciences (CYGT), a Beijing company developing next-gen gene sequencing machines, completed a C round of at least $14 million (see story). The funding was led by Guangzhou High-tech Zone Science and Technology Holdings. Cygnus has developed a high-precision sequencing technology that applies an error-correcting decoding algorithm after the sequencing to improve accuracy. 

Coronavirus Pandemic

• Sinopharm reported that an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine developed by its subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, caused an impressive antibody response in its Phase I/II trial (see story). In subjects who were given the second dose 28 days after the first one, the vaccine produced a response in 100% of the volunteers. If the subjects received a second dose on the 14th or 21st day, the vaccine caused a seroconversion rate of 97.6%. 
• Sinovac Biotech (SVA) of Beijing reported its COVID-19 vaccine produced a seroconversion rate of above 90% in a China Phase I/II trial (see story). The trial enrolled 743 healthy volunteers, 143 in Phase I and 600 in Phase II. There were no severe adverse events reported in either trial. Sinovac intends to conduct a Phase III trial in partnership with Brazil's Instituto Butantan.
• Clover Biopharma of Chengdu has tested the first subjects in a Phase I first-in-human study testing the company's COVID-19 S-Trimer subunit vaccine candidate (SCB-2019) (see story). The company expects to release preliminary safety and immunogenicity results for the Phase I study in August 2020, and it has already begun planning for a global Phase IIb/III efficacy trial projected to start by year-end 2020.

Trials and Approvals

• Suzhou Innovent Biologics announced its second approval to market a drug in China (see story). China's NMPA approved the launch of the company's Avastin biosimilar, Byvasda® (bevacizumab), to treat advanced non-small cell lung cancer and metastatic colorectal cancer. In early 2020, Innovent out-licensed US-Canada commercial rights for the biosimilar to Coherus BioSciences (CHRCHRSS).
• Ascentage Pharma of Suzhou submitted an NDA to China's Center for Drug Evaluation for HQP135, its third-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor, as a treatment for leukemia (see story). The candidate is specifically designed to treat chronic myeloid leukemia (CP-CML) and accelerated phase CML (AP-CML) that has developed the T315I mutation, which is the most common drug-resistant mutation caused by BCR-ABL drugs such as Gleevec. The submission for HQP135 is the first NDA that Ascentage has submitted to regulators.