Deals and Financings
Innovent Biologics of Suzhou and Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) expanded their 10-year collaboration formed in March this year, granting Lilly ex-China rights to three new anti-PD-1 cancer drugs developed by Innovent (see story). Innovent will receive more than $1 billion in milestones in total from Lilly, plus potential royalties. Innovent will develop, manufacture and commercialize the drugs inside China, while Lilly will do the same outside of China. Lilly will pay sales royalties and other payments if the drugs are commercialized outside China. This is the largest biotech drug development collaboration in China to date, eclipsing last month’s $795 million Hengrui/Incyte deal, and illustrates the value of innovation now coming from China.
Hutchison China MediTech, also known as Chi-Med, filed for an initial public offering in the US that could raise as much as $100 million (see story). The company intends to list on NASDAQ under the symbol HCM. Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank Securities are acting as joint bankers for the IPO. Established in 2000, Hutchison had revenue about $87.3 million in 2014, and currently has seven novel drug candidates in clinical-stage trials, three of which are partnered with AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly or Nestlé Health Science.
Tianjin CanSino Biotechnology, a company focusing on human vaccines R&D, started construction of a $317 million manufacturing facility in the northeastern city of Tianjin to produce an Ebola vaccine (see story). The vaccine was developed jointly by the Bioengineering Institute of China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS) and Tianjin CanSino Biotechnology. One week ago, it began a Phase II clinical trial in Sierra Leone. CanSino expects to complete construction in 2017-2018.
Phagelux, a leading anti-bacterial company based in Shanghai, announced the acquisition of the key assets of Scithera Microbial Technologies, headquartered in Wuhan China (see story). The assets include intellectual property for multiple lysins and for the rapid development of lysin solutions. Phagelux also acquired Scithera’s scientific team, who will be located in new Phagelux laboratory facilities at the Wuhan’s BioLake Science Park.
