HONG KONG – Aprinoia Therapeutics Inc. is poised to start phase III clinical trials for its positron emission tomography (PET) imaging tracer 18F-APN-1607 in China, after receiving the green light from the National Medical Products Administration.

Ocular Therapeutix Inc. and Affamed Therapeutics Ltd. entered a license and collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize Dextenza and OTX-TIC in greater China, South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations markets.

HONG KONG – Cstone Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. inked a licensing agreement with Legochem Biosciences Inc. for LCB-71, the latter’s antibody-drug conjugate.

HONG KONG – Kangstem Biotech Co. Ltd. has completed research on South Korea’s first artificial liver and is taking the next steps towards the device’s clinical trials.

HONG KONG – Even with vaccine administration just around the corner, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has warned his ministers to not rush the launch of COVID-19 vaccines over mounting public concerns about whether those vaccines would be certified halal, or permissible under Islamic law.

PERTH, Australia – Neuroscience technology company Cogstate Ltd. and Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai Co. Ltd. signed a deal under which Eisai will have global development rights and exclusive commercialization rights of all cognitive function tests developed by Cogstate, including the Cogstate Brief Battery (CBB) for use in health care and other markets.

The Chinatrials roundtable went virtual this year and drew clinical trial experts to discuss state-of-the-art clinical trial design strategies, which are increasingly important in a more competitive clinical landscape.

Chinese biotech startup Affamed Therapeutics Ltd., funded by CBC Group, has merged with biopharmaceutical company Everinsight Therapeutics Inc., five days after it licensed in a dopamine agonist, KDT-3594, for Parkinson's disease from Japan’s Kissei Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.