Deals and Financings

Sinopharm Group (HK: 1099), China's largest drug distribution company, raised $716 million through a secondary issue to a "handful" of institutional investors, who purchased 199 million new shares (see story). The issue increases Sinopharm's outstanding shares by 7.74%. The company said the new capital will help Sinopharm expand its network (it did not specify whether the growth would come from internal growth or through M&A) and to replenish liquidity after its already completed growth initiatives. 

Ally Bridge Group, a Hong Kong-US venture capital firm, participated in the $8.3 million funding of Pieris AG, a Munich preclinical-stage biotech (see story). Pieris develops molecules based on Anticalins, which are artificial proteins based on human lipocalins. It was the first investment Ally Bridge has made in Germany and the fifth round for Pieris. Ally Bridge, a company focused on innovative life science technologies, has made investments in the US, China and Europe. 

Haiyin Capital, a China VC, made a $5 million investment in the C funding round of Cerevast Therapeutics (see story). Seattle-based Cerevast is currently shepherding its acoustic medical device through a Phase III trial for treatment of ischemic stroke. According to Forbes, when Cerevast's CEO was on the road raising money, US venture capitalists tried to beat down the valuation. Haiyin's attitude was different: it viewed the deal as a strategic transaction with China market potential as a significant value-add. 

CARsgen, a Shanghai company developing cancer immunotherapies, completed a Series A funding of an undisclosed amount led by BVCF (see story). CARsgen is developing Chimeric Antigen Receptors T (CAR-T) immunotherapies for a variety of cancers, and it plans to begin a clinical trial of its lead molecule in patients with liver cancer. BVCF (formerly BioVeda) is a China healthcare private equity investor; it closed a new $188 million fund in April. 

Nanjing Frontier Biotechnologies gained global rights to a novel topical patch for acute and chronic pain management from ABsize Inc. of Japan (see story). The product, AB001, has completed a Phase I trial in the US. AB001 is a prescription-strength NSAID topical patch to treat acute pain and inflammation of the joints and muscles. ABsize is a spin-off from Osaka University with a novel nanosizing process that allows patch delivery. 

Company News

In January of this year, Paul Bisaro, Chairman and CEO of Actavis (NYSE: ACT), declared the company would exit China: the regulatory system was too unpredictable and the profit margins too small, he said. In the ten months since then, Actavis has become a different company because of two giant acquisitions: first Forest Labs and more recently Allergan, a $66 billion transaction. It also has a new CEO: Brent Saunders, who had been CEO of Forest Labs. Actavis officials told Bloomberg that the Allergan takeover would involve job losses for some people, but China would now become a growth area (see story). 

Disclosure: none.