Deals and Financings

Shanghai Fosun Pharma (HK: 2196; SHA: 600196) will pay $158 million to acquire a 60% stake in a Singapore oncology medical center chain, Oncocare Medical Pte. (see story). Oncocare, with seven clinics in Singapore’s medical centers, is one of Singapore’s largest private medical oncology specialist centers. Most of the purchase, a 51% Oncocare share, was acquired from Aurora Healthcare, a company controlled by Dianbo Liu, the chairman of Hong Kong-listed Lue Pharma. About 10% of Fosun’s revenues derive from hospitals/clinics, and the company plans to expand its medical services coverage in China and Southeast Asia. 

Insilico Medicine, a Hong Kong AI-based company, completed a $60 million Series D financing (see story). The company said it will allocate part of the funds to build a fully automated, AI-driven robotic drug discovery laboratory and a fully robotic biological data factory, which will complement its large library of curated data assets. Insilico partners with other biopharma companies, using its AI discovery technology to discover drugs more quickly and at lower cost than traditional methods. Last week, it announced China approval to start trials of sn idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis therapy for its own portfolio. 

Shanghai Degron Therapeutics raised $22 million Series A round to develop small-molecule medicines that target previously undruggable targets (see story). Degron’s GlueXplorer® platform is based on a unique molecular glue-based targeted protein degradation technology aimed at accelerating the development of novel drugs for oncology, inflammation, metabolic disease and rare diseases. The company has three pipeline programs in lead-optimization, including a first-in-class target with potential application to a broad range of cancers and immune diseases. The funding was led by Med-Fine Capital and included Dyee Capital, Baidu Venture, and NeuX Capital. 

Shanghai I-Mab (NSDQ: IMAB) will alter its collaboration with Switzerland’s Ferring Pharma to develop olamkicept, a potential therapy for inflammatory bowel disease (see story). In 2016, I-Mab acquired rights to develop olamkicept. a selective interleukin-6 inhibitor, in Greater China and Korea. Now, Ferring will invest in the global development of olamkicept, while I-Mab will have an option to collaborate with Ferring in olamkicept’s global development at a pre-defined milestone. No details were given, though Ferring mal underwrite a China Phase III trial of olamkicept, and I-Mab will opt into global development later. 

OnCusp Therapeutics, a New York-Shanghai biopharma, acquired global rights (ex-China) to a pre-clinical CDH6 antibody drug conjugate from Multitude Therapeutics (see story). Multitude is a Shanghai-Redwood City antibody drug conjugate company that was spun out of Shanghai’s Abmart, which offers off-the-shelf and customized antibodies. OnCusp obtained rights to AMT-707, a highly differentiated second-in-class CDH6 (Cadherin-6 or K-cadherin) ADC. CDH6 is highly expressed in ovarian and renal cancers and also found in other malignancies. Multitude will receive upfront and milestone payments along with tiered royalties. 

Trials and Approvals

Shanghai’s Everest Medicines (HK: 1952) was approved to launch Trodelvy® (sacituzumab govitecan) for triple-negative breast cancer, the company’s first approved drug in China (see story). Patients must have previously received two or more prior systemic therapies, at least one of them for metastatic disease. Trodelvy is an antibody-drug conjugate that targets Trop-2. In 2019, Everest acquired China rights to Trodelvy from Immunomedics in a deal worth up to $835 million, a record for a single candidate in-licensing at the time. Everest expects to begin marketing the drug in China towards the end of the year. 

Suzhou CStone Pharma (HK: 2616) reported that China approved its anti-PD-L1, sugemalimab (Cejemly®), in patients with unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer whose disease has not progressed following concurrent or sequential platinum-based chemoradiotherapy (see story). The approval is sugemalimab’s third for an NSCLC indication. At ASCO, CStone also announced sugemalimab plus chemotherapy prolonged median survival by 8.5 months over placebo in treatment-naïve stage IV NSCLC with squamous and non-squamous histology. In 2020, CStone out-licensed China rights for sugemalimab to Pfizer in a $480 million agreement. 

Shanghai Henlius Biotech (HK: 2696) announced its ant-PD-1 as a first-line treatment for extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) improved median overall survival to 15.4 months from 10.9 months in the placebo group (see story). Hansizhuang (serplulimab) was administered together with chemotherapy and compared to chemotherapy alone. In March 2022, the PD-1 was approved in China to treat MSI-H solid tumors. Henlius said it has filed two additional NDAs in China for the drug, and it is conducting nine other serplulimab clinical trials around the world. Henlius released the data at the ASCO conference. 

Suzhou Innovent (HK: 01801) and Hangzhou AnHeart announced the Phase II trial of their partnered tyrosine kinase inhibitor was effective in TKI-naïve or Crizotinib-pretreated ROS1-positive NSCLC patients (see story). The next-gen TKI targets ROS1 and NTRK. In 67 ROS1 TKI-naïve patients, the confirmed objective response rate was 92.5% and disease control rate 95.5%. In 38 crizotinib-pretreated patients, the cORR was 50% and DCR 78.9%. One year ago, Innovent acquired Greater China co-commercialization rights to the candidate from AnHeart in a deal that included an upfront payment, up to $189 million in milestones and royalties on sales. 

Chengdu Keymed Biosciences (HK: 02162) dosed the first patient in a China Phase I trial of a bispecific antibody that targets solid tumors (see story). CM350, which was developed on Keymed’s proprietary Novel T cell engager platform, is the first GPC3xCD3 to start China trials. GPC3 expression is rarely found in normal human adult tissues but upregulated in many types of solid tumors including hepatocellular carcinoma along with lung, gastric and esophageal cancers. The Phase I trial will evaluate safety issues and preliminary antitumor activity of CM350 in patients with solid tumors. Keymed develops novel drugs for autoimmune diseases and cancer. 

Disclosure: none.

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