Samsung Biologics, a Korean biologics CMO/biosimilar company, completed a $2 billion IPO in South Korea at an $8 billion valuation; Qiming Venture closed its fourth RMB fund at $222 million; Beijing’s BeiGene filed to raise as much as $150 million in a secondary offering for its novel oncology drug programs; Hangzhou’s Betta Pharma raised $106 million via an IPO on Shenzhen’s Chi-Next Exchange; Yisheng Biopharma, a Beijing vaccine company, will collaborate with San Diego’s Scripps Research Institute to test its PIKA vaccine adjuvant; Genexine of Korea and Merck/MSD joined forces to develop a two-drug treatment for HPV-induced cancer; Shanghai’s Eddingpharm signed a deal with Lilly China for two well-established Lilly antibiotics in China, and Eddingpharm also in-licensed China rights to an insomnia drug ZolpiMist® from Suda of Australia; Ping An Insurance has added 10,000 medical clinics in mainland China to its Wanjia Clinics chain since July; and Sirnaomics, a US-China pharma, reported approval of a US IND for a Phase II trial of its lead RNAi therapeutic.
