Pharmaceutical News of August | PharmaSources.com—Transaction & IPO

Transaction

Suzhou Vigonvita Life Sciences completed a new series of equity financing, with Qihoo 360, Share Venture, Ganzhou Qizhi Huikang, and Suzhou Meilingge becoming new shareholders of the company and the registered capital increasing to RMB5,769,231. Established in 2013, Vigonvita now has six innovative drugs in development, with the product fastest in the progress being TPN171. TPN171 is a selective PDE5 inhibitor sourced from flavonoid natural products, which is used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Sep. 2

CanSino Biologics announced it initiated the phase III clinical trial for its Recombinant Novel Coronavirus Vaccine (Adenovirus Type 5 Vector) (the “Ad5-nCoV”); the company entered into an agreement with NPO Petrovax Pharm, pursuant to which both parties will cooperate to conduct the phase III clinical trial for Ad5-nCoV in Russia; they have received the clinical trial application approval from the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. In addition, the company is currently driving the international multi-center phase III clinical trial for Ad5-nCoV and plans to conduct the phase III clinical trial for Ad5-nCoV in several countries.

Sep. 1

Gilead announced an agreement with Jounce Therapeutics to obtain an exclusive license to develop the latter’s JTX-1811 program. Under the terms of the agreement, Gilead will make a USD85 million upfront payment to, and a USD35 million equity investment at a premium in, Jounce upon closing. In addition, Jounce may receive up to an additional USD685 million in future clinical, regulatory and commercial milestone payments. JTX-1811 is a monoclonal antibody designed to selectively deplete immunosuppressive tumor-infiltrating T regulatory (TITR) cells.

Salubris announced that it would transfer a total of 52,300,800 of the company’s unrestricted tradable shares (accounting for 5% of the company’s total stock capital) to CLSA Asset Management Limited by agreement at a price of RMB33.94/share for a total transfer price of more than RMB1.775 billion. The reason for the share transfer according to the announcement was that Carlyle Group highly recognized the team and product layout of Salubris.

Aug. 24

Escugen Biotech has announced the completion of pre-series A financing of tens of millions of RMB recently, which was funded by DT Capital and Cash Capital, etc. Escugen Biotech is an R&D enterprise of innovative antibodies, with products in development positioned as the best / first-in-class, and product lines having both druggability and market potential.

Bio-Thera announced an authorization, distribution and supply agreement with BeiGene to license the related intellectual property and product rights and interests in China of BAT1706 (bevacizumab) to BeiGene for a price. According to the agreement, the total of the upfront payment and milestone payments in this transaction can reach up to USD165 million, including an upfront payment of USD20 million, milestone payments of accumulatively not more than USD145 million, and royalties of a double-digit percentage.

Aug. 25

Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) and Forbius jointly announced a definitive agreement under which BMS will acquire Forbius. Under this transaction, BMS will acquire Forbius’s TGF-beta program, including the program’s lead investigational asset, AVID200. AVID200 is a highly potent and isoform-selective TGF-beta inhibitor.

Aug. 31

Livzon Group announced a Patent Transfer and Technology Exclusive Licensing Agreement with TYK Medicines to obtain an exclusive right to develop and commercialize TY2136b (a ROS1/NTRK/ALK multiple target kinase inhibitor) and its relevant patents in the People’s Republic of China (including the Hong Kong, S.A.R., China Special Administrative Region, the Macau, S.A.R., China Special Administrative Region, and Taiwan, China) for not more than RMB151 million.

Aug. 13

Lerming Pharma announced a global strategic cooperation agreement with Ascendia Pharmaceuticals, a U.S. pharmaceutical company, to obtain the right to develop, produce and commercialize in the Chinese mainland the latter’s clopidogrel nanoemulsion (ASD-002) in development.

Aug. 11

Arctic Vision announced an exclusive license agreement with U.S. Eyenovia to obtain the right to develop and commercialize MicroPine, an innovative therapy for progressive myopia, and MicroLine, an innovative therapy for presbyopia in Greater China (including the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, S.A.R., China, Macau, S.A.R., China, and Taiwan, China) and South Korea.

Aug. 7

Biogen and Denali Therapeutics announced an agreement to develop and promote Denali’s DNL151, a small molecule LRRK2 inhibitor, for treating Parkinson’s disease. According to the agreement, Biogen will pay a USD560 million upfront payment and a USD465 million equity investment, and Denali will be eligible to receive up to USD1.125 billion in potential milestone payments.

Aug. 6

AstraZeneca announced that it signed a cooperation framework agreement with BioKangtai to exclusively license its COVID-19 vaccine: AZD1222 in the Chinese mainland market. According to the agreement, BioKangtai, as the transferee, will ensure annual production of at least 100 million doses by the end of 2020 and will expand the design capacity to at least 200 million doses per year by the end of 2021.

Teladoc Health reached an agreement with Livongo, according to which, Teladoc will merge with Livongo to unlock the full potential of telemedicine through both parties’ expertise in telemedicine and chronic condition management. The amount of this transaction is expected to reach USD18.5 billion.

Aug. 4

Tasly announced that it decided to terminate the cooperation on the oncolytic virus (C-REV) for pancreatic cancer and melanoma upon a consensus with Takara, a Japanese company, and had signed the termination agreement recently. The total transaction value had been as high as USD27.5 million.

MSD and Hanmi announced an exclusive licensing agreement in connection with the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of efinopegdutide (HM12525A) to treat nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Efinopegdutide is a once-weekly GLP-1 / GCGR dual agonist developed by Hanmi. The total transaction amount reaches up to USD870 million.

Aug. 3

Simcere entered into an exclusive license agreement involving up to USD170 million with G1 Therapeutics to obtain the right to develop and commercialize all indications of a CDK4/6 inhibitor of the latter in Greater China (Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, S.A.R., China, Macau, S.A.R., China, and Taiwan, China).

IPO

Sep. 3

Kangmei, severely punished and suspended for more than one month by China Securities Regulatory Commission due to financial fraud, resumed trading, with the stock price directly hitting the daily upper limit, buy orders reaching 1.37 million lots, and the total market capitalization reaching RMB15.419 billion. The reason for that was because ST Kangmei disclosed the news of the change to its controlling shareholder the night before, according to which, Yilin Investment, which has a state-owned assets background, would obtain the voting and proposal rights, etc. corresponding to the 1.487 billion shares (29.9%) of Kangmei made over by Kangmei Industrial.

Sep. 2

Sunnovo applied to the Shanghai Stock Exchange for listing on the STAR Market, with the total number of shares to issue not exceeding 20 million and the funds to raise of RMB484 million, with Minsheng Securities as the sponsor institution and principal underwriter. It is the 5th CRO applying for listing on the STAR Market following Medicilon, HitGen, Haoyuan Chemexpress, and Crystal Pharmatech.

Aug. 26

Antengene formally applied for an IPO with the HKEx, with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase as its co-sponsors and the amount of funds raised by the IPO not disclosed. Established in 2016 as a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on innovative oncology drugs, Antengene has now built a product pipeline of 12 innovative drugs in development, two of which are in late-stage clinical trials.

Aug. 24

Bio-Thera applied to the HKEx for the listing on the Main Board, with CICC as its sole sponsor, which is Bio-Thera’s second financing behavior in the capital market following its listing on the STAR Market this February. The 2020 Q1 revenue of Bio-Thera’s only product marketed: adalimumab injection (trade name: QLETLI) reached RMB19,726,100.

Aug. 13

CanSino, the “first COVID-19 vaccine-related stock” (688185), was officially listed on the SSE STAR Market on Aug. 13. CanSino’s issue price of RMB209.71/share is the second highest price in the history of the STAR Market. The stock price rose 124% to RMB470 after the opening of the market and eventually closed at RMB393.11, with a market capitalization of RMB97.275 billion. The rise of the stock price was because its COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been completed the phase II clinical trial and received the Military Specially-Needed Drug Approval with a valid period for one year from the Health Bureau of the Logistics Support Department of the Central Military Commission for the use within the military.

Aug. 3

Tigermed announced that it determined a final price of HKD100.00/share for the issuance of foreign shares (H-shares) and it would be listed on HKEx’s Main Board from Aug. 7, 2020.

About  the Author:    

Caicai, a Master of Pharmacy from Shanghai Jiaotong University, used to work in the Institute of Science and Technical Information. Currently as a practitioner in the drug surveillance system, she is good at interpreting industry regulations, pharmaceutical research developments, etc.

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