Genome editing startup Edigene Inc. closed a ¥400 million (US$62 million) series B+ round to expand its operation to more cities and advance its lead product ET-01 into clinical trials. The financing follows the $67 million series B that closed in October 2020.
The newly renamed Hutchmed (China) Ltd., previously known as Hutchison China Meditech Ltd. (Chi-Med), plans to sell $100 million of its American depository shares at $30.50 per ADS in a private placement to funds affiliated with Baring Private Equity Asia.
HONG KONG – Onquality Pharmaceuticals LLC raised an additional $20 million from a series A+ financing round, bringing its amount of capital raised to $35 million.
Zai Lab Ltd., China rights holder for the Deciphera Pharmaceuticals Inc. drug Qinlock (ripretinib), has obtained NMPA approval for the therapy, a treatment for adults with advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) previously treated with three or more kinase inhibitors, including imatinib, sunitinib and regorafenib.
Full rights to TAK-169, a CD38-targeted engineered toxin body that Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. and Molecular Templates Inc. have been developing, are going to Molecular Templates as is the therapy’s clinical development. Making way for the new candidate, Molecular is discontinuing development of MT-3724, which is in a phase II study for treating diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma but was placed on a partial clinical hold by the FDA after a treatment-related fatality in one of the subjects.
Suzhou-China based Cstone Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., which in-licensed RET inhibitor pralsetinib from Blueprint Medicines Corp. in 2018, has won Chinese approval for the drug to treat adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic RET fusion-positive non-small-cell lung cancer after platinum-based chemotherapy. Already approved as Gavreto in the U.S., the drug is Cstone’s first product approved in China and the country’s first selective RET inhibitor.
HONG KONG – Eisai Co. Ltd. has received not one, but two approvals from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), for its anticancer agent Remitoro (denileukin diftitox) and multiple receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor Lenvima (lenvatinib mesylate).
HONG KONG – Bispecific antibody startup Epimab Biotherapeutics Inc. has completed a $120 million series C financing, bringing it closer to a potential IPO next year. The Shanghai-based company said the new funds would help it move EMB-01 into phase II testing this year.
HONG KONG – Privately held Wugen Inc. of St. Louis has inked an exclusive deal with Shanghai-based Alpha Biopharma Ltd. to manufacture, develop and commercialize allogeneic cell products in Asia.
Four years after leaving the Nasdaq, Sciclone Pharmaceuticals Holdings Ltd. returned to the market March 3, issuing 116 million shares to raise HK$2.18 billion (US$281 million) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). Shares were priced at HK$18.8 each.
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