Did you know?

ChinaBio® Group is a consulting and advisory firm helping life science companies and investors achieve success in China. ChinaBio works with U.S., European and APAC companies and investors seeking partnerships, acquisitions, novel technologies and funding in China.  

Learn more >>

Free Newsletter

Have the latest stories on China's life science industry delivered to your inbox daily or weekly - free!

  Email address:
   

The Week in Review: Invention and Design

publication date: May 9, 2009
 | 
author/source: Richard Daverman, PhD
A successful biopharma initiative needs something new – an innovative idea. But it must also pay attention to the somewhat more mundane, but nevertheless very necessary, process of complying with business and regulatory requirements – the rationalization of the idea. Both were in evidence last week in the world of China biopharma.

On the innovative side of things last week, ChinaBio® Today profiled a young startup, Sinoasis Pharmaceuticals, located in Guangzhou and founded in 2003, which is building its business around a proprietary platform technology for discovering fully human therapeutic antibodies (see story). “We have a technology that can functionally select an antibody or domains with thermodynamic stability,” said Shengfeng Li, PhD, in an exclusive ChinaBio® Today interview. Thermodynamic stability “is one of the key properties for therapeutic antibodies as they often require a long half-life,” he explained. The company has a prospective anti-coagulant drug in Phase II clinical trials and two anti-cancer molecules in early stage development.

Despite a dour outlook for its worldwide CRO business, Charles River Laboratories (NYSE: CRL) said it is very pleased with its recently opened 50,000 square foot China facility in China (see story). In fact, it is looking for a second location. Because so many of Charles River’s clients now are doing work in China, there is a need to have “in-country” facilities to provide them with CRO services, according to James Foster, Chairman, President and CEO of the company.

WuXi AppTec (NYSE: WX) (药明康德) received a 2009 Lilly Global Supplier Award from Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) (see story). WuXi said that Lilly used its drug discovery, development and manufacturing services to increase their own productivity. WuXi took advantage of the announcement to also disclose that its GLP drug safety evaluation center in Suzhou and expanded commercial manufacturing facility in the Jinshan area of Shanghai are fully constructed and currently undergoing validation.

NeoStem, Inc. (NYSE Amex: NBS) in-licensed worldwide rights to Primcel, a mesenchymal (bone marrow) stem cell product that, in early clinical studies, shows promise of accelerating the healing of chronic wounds (see story). NeoStem has opened adult stem cell collection sites in the US and has invested in regenerative medicine companies in China. When NeoStem received new capital from Asian investors in April 2009, the company declared its intention to enter the medical tourism business.

China Aoxing Pharmaceutical Company (OTCBB: CAXG) (中国奥星药业) has received an SFDA production license for Isosorbide Mononitrate Injection, a vasodilator, for treatment of angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, chronic congestive heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and related coronary artery disease (see story). China Aoxing, which focuses on pain medications, plans to begin selling its newest product to hospitals in the second half of 2009.

Simcere Pharmaceutical Group (NYSE: SCR) (先声药业) will seek approval from the SFDA to manufacture and sell products containing the flu drug zanamivir (see story). Zanamivir was developed by GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), which sells it under the brand name Relenza. Simcere has held a license to produce zanamivir since 2006, the only mainland China biopharma to hold such a license. Zanamivir is one of only two flu drugs that seem to be effective against the H1N1 strain of influenza.

China Sky One Medical (NSDQ: CSKI) (中国天字一号医药公司) announced that the R&D behind its Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) Early Examination Kit was examined by the Heilongjiang Bureau of Science and Technology, which concluded that the research was reliably conducted (see story). The decision allows China Sky One to begin clinical trials on its SCD Kit. In 2008, Prof. Baofeng Yang, Principal of Harbin Medical University and Chief Scientist of Chinese National 973 Project, found a positive correlation between the concentration of a substance called "MicroRNA-1" in human blood and the occurrence of SCD.

Tianyin Pharmaceutical Co. (NYSE Amex: TPI) has completed construction of its new Chengdu production facility (see story). The new production equipment has been installed, and Tianyin is currently testing the purification system, a process that should be complete this month. Production is expected to begin in July of this year. The new production facility will triple the company’s production capacity of solid dosage drugs.

Cuban officials have begun the registration process in China for Heberprot-B, an innovative treatment for chronic diabetic ulcers in the extremities (see story). Developed by Havana’s Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB), Heberprot-B is said to reduce the need for amputation by 50%. The drug underwent Cuban clinical trials in more than 300 patients, and has been approved for use there since 2006.


Disclosure: none.




 

Share this with colleagues:

 

ChinaBio® News

Greg Scott BIO-Europe Interview
Greg Scott Interviewed at BIO-Europe Spring

How to bring your China assets to China in 8 minutes


Greg Scott Mendelspod Interview
"Mr. Bio in China."
Mendelspod Interview

Multinational pharma held to a higher standard in China

Partner Event
November 2-3, 2023 | Shanghai
November 7-8, 2023 | Digital