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Week in Review: Baiyunshan Pharma Raises $1.6 Billion

publication date: Jan 17, 2015
 | 
author/source: Richard Daverman, PhD
Deals and Financings

Guangzhou Baiyunshan Pharma (HK: 874) will raise $1.6 billion in a secondary offering, which it will use for various corporate initiatives, including expanding its China's online drug selling effort (see story). One of the investors is Yunfeng, the private equity firm co-founded by Jack Ma, CEO of China's huge Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) online marketplace. Mr. Ma's participation attracted a great deal of media attention, even though Yunfeng is buying only one-twentieth of the total offering. Baiyunshan is the first manufacturer of generic Viagra in China. 

Roche (SIX: ROG) will invest more than $1 billion to obtain a 56% stake in Foundation Medicine (NSDQ: FMI), a Boston company that offers a ground-breaking genomic test of cancer tumors (see story). The FoundationOne® assay tests 343 regions of a tumor's genome to discover mutations and identify the best therapeutic option. WuXi PharmaTech's (NYSE: WX) investment arm participated in Foundation's Series B round in 2012, and it partners with Foundation to provide the test in China. Roche's acquisition of Foundation provides WuXi with an early exit of its investment.  

Hanmi Pharmaceutical (KRX: 128940) of South Korea will invest $20 million into California-based Allegro Ophthalmics to obtain rights for Luminate®, a vitreo-retinal treatment, in China and South Korea (see story). Hanmi will also pay an undisclosed licensing fee. Luminate is an integrin peptide, currently in several US Phase II trials, targeting several diseases that cause blindness. 

Burnet Institute of Melbourne, Australia finalized a $4 million investment from GuoMinXinHe, a Beijing investment firm, to underwrite operations of its China subsidiary, Nanjing BioPoint Diagnostic Technology (see story). BioPoint is tasked with China development of a low-cost point-of-care assay for liver function. After the investment, Burnet and GuoMinXinHe will own Nanjing BioPoint jointly. 

The Mayo Clinic has joined with China's Hillhouse Capital in a joint venture designed to improve delivery of healthcare in China (see story). Both Mayo and Hillhouse will invest in the venture, which will be based in Beijing. Though details of the plans were not disclosed, it seems the company will build a clinic/hospital based on Mayo's model in Minnesota. The partners said the project combines Mayo's strengths in medical technology and management with Hillhouse’s experience in China, and was made possible by China's new policy that encourages private investment in hospitals. 

China's 3SBio signed a second deal to in-license a cancer drug candidate from PharmAbcine of Korea, this time for a bi-specific antibody (see story). DIG-KT, which has an anti-angiogenesis mechanism, targets both the VEGFR2/KDR and Tie-2 pathways. Two months ago, 3SBio in-licensed rights to a PharmAbcine mAb with only the VEGFR2/KDR target. 3SBio will have rights in Greater China and Korea to the latest drug. The agreement includes upfront, milestone and royalty payments, though specific amounts were not disclosed. 

Tianyin Pharma (NYSE: TPI) will form a Joint Venture with Buchang Pharmaceutical of Shangdong to increase China distribution of its modernized formulations of traditional Chinese medicines (see story). In return for a 95% stake in the JV, Tianyin will contribute its portfolio of TCM products and its newly completed production facility in Qionglai. which constitute the JV's registered capital of $33 million. If Buchang added any capital for its 5% ownership of the JV, it wasn't disclosed. 

Biostar Pharma (NSDQ: BSPM), a traditional Chinese medicine company, signed an R&D pact with Northwest University of Xi'an to develop Danshensu Yibingzhi (IDHP), a Class One drug for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases (see story). The university holds patents to IDHP, which was developed by Professor Xiaohui Zheng, who is affiliated with the university and also serves as Chief Scientist at Biostar. The company invests about 18% of its revenues in R&D. 

Government and Regulatory

China’s State Council announced a new $6.5 billion venture capital fund for startup companies in emerging industries (see story). Biotech and green energy were mentioned as likely candidates by commentators. The fund will be a combination of government and public funds, whose goal is to encourage economic growth by building "high-tech, high-value-added services" industries, according to the official announcement on the State Council's website. 

Company News

Shanghai Biotechnology Corporation, a biomarker service CRO, has teamed up with AKESOgen, a US genetics, genomics and biorepository services provider, to offer joint projects to their pharma/biotech clients in Asia and the US (see story). Both companies offer genomic CRO services, though they said their services are complementary to each other. 

Trials and Approvals

Chipscreen Biosciences of Shenzhen received CFDA approval of Chidamide (Epidaza®), a treatment for relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) patients (see story). According to Chipscreen, Chidamide is world's first oral subtype-selective histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor for PTCL to be granted approval. Chidamide, which was reviewed under a CFDA accelerated program, will be the first of Chipscreen's portfolio to be marketed. 

Disclosure: none.


 

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