Chinese biotechs are increasingly seeking deals with multinational companies, and those deal structures are getting more creative. The “newco” deal structure is getting a lot of attention, but the barrier for entry is quite high for this type of deal, Morrison Foerster Shanghai Managing Partner Chuan Sun told BioWorld. As previously reported by BioWorld, economic uncertainty is taking a toll on China’s innovative biotech system, forcing local companies to weather unpredictable storms. The last two years have been particularly challenging in China, with health care investment down 70% and foreign investment down 90%. IPOs on the Hong Kong market have been weak, geopolitical issues are getting more challenging, and investors are tightening their belts and figuring out where to hedge their bets.

Few biopharma mega-mergers hit the jackpot

Due diligence plays a significant role in M&A transactions, but the eventual return on investments don’t always add up to the purchase price. While some companies such as Abbvie Inc. and Bristol Myers Squibb Co. – as shown in part one of this three-part series – have succeeded in acquiring products able to surpass M&A sticker prices, the vast majority of deals analyzed by BioWorld showed that most buyers remain significantly in the red. For part two, there is one exception – an M&A completed by Gilead Sciences Inc. in 2011 that was a clear “win” for the buyer – as well as six examples of a “loss” in which acquired products did not fulfill their promise, and two others that are just too early to make a determination.

Qlaris’ QLS-111 reduces eye pressure in two phase II trials

Qlaris Bio Inc. reported promising top-line data from two phase II studies testing QLS-111, its topical potassium channel modulator, in patients with primary open angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension. The drug demonstrated intraocular pressure (IOP)-lowering activity both as a monotherapy and in combination with latanoprost, a prostaglandin analogue often used as a first-line treatment in glaucoma, with additive IOP reductions vs. latanoprost alone. While the glaucoma space is a crowded one, Qlaris has pointed to the novel mechanism of QLS-111, designed to target episcleral venous pressure, a determinant for overall IOP.

Doctors group sues US CDC, FDA over data takedown

When the U.S. CDC and FDA recently removed several webpages and datasets from their websites in compliance with a directive from the Office of Personnel Management, they broke the law and harmed public health and research, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday by Doctors for America. The removal of pages dealing with such things as accounting for sex differences in clinical trials of medical products and HIV testing and treatment guidance “creates a dangerous gap in the scientific data available to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, deprives physicians of resources that guide clinical practice, and takes away key resources for communicating and engaging with patients,” the group said in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Europe leads US in cancer startups, but lacks patents, finance

Europe has more oncology startups than the U.S., but many more U.S. companies scale up to the later growth stage. Given the proven links between patent ownership and access to finance, that critical gap is in part because U.S. companies hold nearly twice as many patents as European counterparts, according to an analysis by the European Patent Office (EPO). The study looked at international patent families (IPFs), that is patents whose owners registered them in more than one of the 39 countries that are members of EPO. After a period of “near stagnation” between 2010 to 2015, with 44,352 oncology-related IPFs filed and an annual growth rate of 1.7%, there was a significant boom from 2016 to 2021, when 65,886 IPFs were registered. The annual growth rate for oncology patents during that time exceeded 9.3%, which was three times higher than the average 3% baseline growth for patenting across all other technologies.

A blood test could identify postpartum depression risk

Currently the only available blood test to tell which women are at risk of postpartum depression (PPD) is the one that confirms their pregnancy – and a one in seven chance of developing the condition which can have long-term implications for both mother and child. Research out of the University of Virginia and Weill Cornell Medicine could soon change that by identifying biomarkers in the third trimester of pregnancy that indicate which women have the greatest risk of developing PPD. “Postpartum depression is the most common complication of childbirth, and it not only affects the mother, but it has known deleterious effects on development of the exposed infant,” Jennifer Payne, professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences and vice chair of research, University of Virginia School of Medicine, told BioWorld.

Targeting translation could be novel way to fight Myc, other oncogenes

Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco have identified an RNA-binding protein that increased the translation of Myc mRNA. The authors wrote that their work, which was published online in Nature Cell Biology on Feb. 4, 2025, “transforms the understanding of the translational code in cancer and illuminates therapeutic openings to target the expression of oncogenes.” Myc is a transcription factor that regulates multiple cellular growth factors. Its overexpression is a driver event in many solid tumors, including pancreatic cancer. Drugging Myc, though, has so far proved challenging.

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