Deals and Financings

Qiming closed its seventh China-focused US dollar fund with $1.1 billion for early stage Healthcare and TMT investments. Currently, Qiming manages nine US dollar funds and five RMB funds, with $5.3 billion of assets under management. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Qiming said it closed Fund VII on time and at its target. Two years ago, Qiming announced its sixth dollar denominated fund with $935 million and, simultaneously, its fifth RMB fund with the equivalent of $334 million. Qiming has China offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Zai Lab (ZLAB) of Shanghai announced a collaboration with Regeneron (REGN) worth up to $190 million to develop a Regeneron bispecific antibody in Greater China. Zai will support Regeneron's global Phase II trial of REGN1979, a CD20xCD3 bispecific, in B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL), a trial that has the potential to be registrational. The candidate is designed to trigger tumor-killing by linking and activating a cytotoxic T-cell (binding to CD3) to a lymphoma cell (binding to CD20). If REGN1979 is approved, Zai will commercialize the drug in Greater China.

RemeGen, a Yantai biotech, closed a $100 million funding co-led by Lilly Asia Ventures and Lake Bleu Capital. Founded in 2008, RemeGen is developing a pipeline of over ten novel biologics for autoimmune, cancer, and ophthalmology diseases. The proceeds will advance commercialization of the company's two lead molecules. RC18 (telitacicept) is a fusion protein with a China NDA filed for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). It is also currently in Phase II or Phase III trials for six other autoimmune diseases. RC48, a HER2 ADC, is currently in pivotal clinical trials for gastric and urothelial cancers.

Suzhou Ribo Life Science completed a $66 million extension to its Series C funding led by Capital Venture Capital Fund (a China state-owned fund), CICC Capital and GL Ventures, the VC arm of Hillhouse Capital. In December, the siRNA company announced a $29 million C1 financing led by Panlin Capital and Trinity Innovation Fund. Founded in 2007, Ribo formed a China JV in 2012 with Quark Pharma, a US siRNA company, which produced Ribo's first China-approved therapy; a treatment for Ischemic Optic Neuropathy.

Cytovant Sciences, a Roivant subsidiary developing innovative therapeutics in Asia, completed a $23.5 million funding to advance its two lead candidates. In 2019, the company announced a $1 billion four-drug immunotherapy deal with Germany's MediGene. It included China/Asia rights to a T-cell immunotherapy that targets NY-ESO-1, as well as a dendritic cell vaccine that targets WT-1 and PRAME. Investors in the funding included BNH Investment, POSCO Capital, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, and Smilegate Investment.

Guangzhou OptoMedic Technologies, a company that makes medical devices based on its high-end optical and bio-optical technology, completed a $14 million Series C funding. The company says its intraoperative endoscopic fluorescence navigation system is used in many general surgery departments globally. The company focuses on devices for minimally invasive surgeries. The investing syndicate included Guangdong Guoke, Hetang Innovation, Morale Capital, and Jiutuo Investment.

Trials and Approvals

Japan's Astellas Pharma reported its NDA for an acute myeloid leukemia (AML) treatment was accepted for China review. Xospata® (gilteritinib) is an oral once-daily therapy for relapsed/refractory AML with a FLT3 mutation (FLT3mut+). Astellas has global rights to gilteritinib, which it discovered in collaboration with Kotobuki Pharma. The treatment was approved in the US and Japan in 2018, and Europe and Canada in 2019.

Immunomedics (IMMU) announced a Phase III trial of its antibody drug conjugate candidate, sacituzumab govitecan, was stopped early because of "compelling evidence of efficacy." The trial enrolled patients with triple-negative breast cancer who had failed at least two previous rounds of chemotherapy. In 2019, Everest Medicines II of Shanghai, a company backed by C-Bridge Capital, paid $65 million upfront for China/East Asian rights to sacituzumab govitecan. It will make a second payment of $60 million if the drug is approved in the US for TNBC.

Sirnaomics, a US-China RNAi therapeutics company, reported positive interim results from a Phase II trial of its RNA treatment for non-melanoma skin cancer. STP705 is a siRNA (small interfering RNA) candidate that produced a complete histologic clearance of squamous cell carcinoma in situ (isSCC) in ten of fifteen patients. The candidate uses a polypeptide nanoparticle (PNP)-enhanced delivery to knock down both TGF-β1 and COX-2 gene expression. The results came from the first three cohorts of a US Phase II dose-escalation trial. Sirnaomics is headquartered in Maryland with subsidiaries in Suzhou and Guangzhou.

Coronavirus Outbreak

Tianjin CanSino Biologics announced plans for a Phase II trial of its COVID-19 vaccine only three weeks after starting its Phase I test. In a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, CanSino says it expects to start the trial soon. The Phase II trial will enroll 500 healthy volunteers, who will receive one of two vaccine dose levels, or a placebo. At 14 days, subjects will be examined for adverse reactions. At 28 days, participant's serum levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies and antibodies against the coronavirus’s spike protein will be measured.

Xiamen Innovax Biotech partnered with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to use GSK's adjuvant with a vaccine Innovax is developing for the COVID-19 pandemic. Innovax is screening a series of truncated spike proteins to gather immunogenicity data. By adding GSK's AS03, the company expects to use smaller amounts of vaccine to attain immunogenicity. Last year, the two companies added another GSK adjuvant to Innovax's next-gen vaccine for Human Papillomavirus (HPV). In February, GSK struck a deal with Clover Biopharma of Chengdu to use its adjuvant with Clover's COVID-19 vaccine.