Goby Asia Healthcare Weekly 6/18

Highlights of the Week

China's charm offensives towards Western business leaders continued the past week with President Xi meeting Bill Gates. Western business leaders who have visited China recently include Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan), Elon Musk (Tesla, Twitter), Laxman Narasimhan (Starbucks), etc. Read more here.

Chinese pharmaceutical companies are growing toward the trend of expanding overseas in Africa. A recent company that has joined this wave is Wuhan Humanwell, which plans to build a factory in Morocco and a commercial company in Chad. Read more here.

Everest Medicines (HKEX: 1952) is the best weekly gainer in the Asia-Pacific, returning 49.4%, while Daan Gene (SZ:002030) is the worst performer, declining 17.9%. The sharp rise in Everest is potentially encouraged by the 67% premium Novartis paid to acquire Chinook Therapeutics. Chinook has a compound designed to treat IgA Nephrophathy, a rare kidney disease. Nefecon, which Everest has licensed from Calliditas, is waiting for NMPA approval for the same indication. There is also speculation that Nefecon will be approved earlier than expected in China. Please see the table at the beginning for more stock market movers in the Asia-Pacific region. Read more here.

?VMS, a Hong-Kong alternative asset management firm, is looking to raise $300 million for its flagship private equity fund. The firm is expecting 15-20 deals with an average value of up to $30 million each and hopes to complete its first close before 2024. Read more here.

Viva Biotech (HKEX: 1873) raised $210 million from strategic investors Temasek, HLC, and True Light by selling 24% of its CRO business for $150 million and?undisclosed amount of its listed entity for $60 million. Read more here.

Siemens announced a $2.2 billion global investment plan which will include a $153.5 million investment in China to expand its digital factory in Chengdu and to build a new R&D center in Shenzhen. Additionally, the plan includes a $219.3 million investment in the construction of a new plant in Singapore for its industrial automotive division. Read more here.

Cullgen, with offices in Shanghai, San Diego, and Tokyo, announced a research collaboration and exclusive option agreement to discover multiple innovative protein degraders with Astellas. Cullgen will receive?an upfront payment of $35M and an additional $85M upon Astellas's exercise of the license option. Total compensation to Cullgen could exceed $1.9 billion. Read more here .

Cholesgen entered into a three-year collaboration with AstraZeneca to advance R&D in hypercholesterolemia and related metabolic disease. Cholesgen may receive an initial payment and a pre-defined license package for the candidates nominated by AstraZeneca. Read more here.

Key Conferences

On July 8, 2023,?the 2023 SAPA Healthcare Investment Forum & Roadshow will take place at Columbia University in NYC. Register here .

Greater China News

Capital Markets and Financing

Addentax Group Corp. is in advanced talks with its Chairman and CEO Mr. Hong Zhida to acquire his partial stake in Shanghai Bao Pharmaceutical, a recombinant protein and antibody drug company which is valued at nearly $842 million. Read more here.

Eccogene raised $25.1 million in its Series B round of financing, co-led by New Alliance Capital and Zhangjiang Healthcare Venture Capital. Funds will go toward Eccogene's pipeline of treatments for metabolic diseases, including ECC5004 to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes and ECC4703 to treat NASH and lipid disorders.?Read more here.

Clinical and Regulatory

China Medical System received marketing approval in China for its Diazepam nasal spray in the treatment of episodes of seizures that are distinct from a patient's usual seizure pattern in patients with epilepsy 6 years of age and older. Read more here.

MindRank dosed the first healthy volunteer in its Phase 1 study of MDR-001, an oral small-molecule glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) developed for the treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Read more here.

HighField Biopharmaceutical?received IND clearance from the U.S. FDA for a Phase 1 trial of HF158K1, an immunoliposome containing doxorubicin for the treatment of HER2 low and HER2+ cancers. Read more here. ?

TG ImmunoPharma received IND clearance from the U.S. FDA for TGI-6, a bispecific antibody that targets unique tumor-associated antigens (TAA) and CD3 molecules simultaneously. Read more here.

Leads Biolabs received IND clearance from the US FDA for the Phase I/II clinical trial of LBL-033, an anti-MUC16/CD3 bispecific antibody, for the treatment of ovarian cancer and other malignant tumors. Read more here.

Mabwell received IND clearance from the US FDA for its 9MW3811 injection, developed for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Read more here.

People

Everest Medicines appointed Dr. Mike Berry as Chief Technology Officer. Read more here.

Presentations

InnoCare?presented data about its pipelines at the European Hematology Association 2023 Hybrid Congress. Read more here.

Innovent announced clinical data updates from the Phase 1 trial of IBI322 in the treatment of anti-PD-(L)1-resistant classic Hodgkin lymphoma at the European Hematology Association 2023 Hybrid Congress. Read more here.

InnoCare released updated clinical data in regards to its BTK inhibitor orelabrutinib at the 17th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma. Read more here.

BeiGene presented recent data on its BTK inhibitor BRUKINSA at the?17th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma. Read more here.

Foresee Pharmaceuticals will participate and present a poster at the WASOG 2023 International Conference on Sarcoidosis and Interstitial Lung Diseases. Read more here.

Other

Sanyou Biopharmaceuticals?launched its Super Trillion Common Light Chain Antibody Discovery Platform, which is capable of generating hundreds of lead antibodies for a single target. Read more here.

Greater Asia News

Japan

Metagen Therapeutics completed its Series A funding in 2 rounds, raising a total of $12.1 million. New investors include Sparx Asset Management, Nippon Venture Capital, Mizuho Capital and SMBC Venture Capital, in addition to the 1st round investors JIC Venture Growth Investments, JAFCO, Fast Track Initiative, and Keio Innovation Initiative. Funds will be used for the construction and operation of an intestinal microbiota bank and ongoing R&D efforts. Read more here.

Senju Pharmaceutical and?Novaliq GmbH?entered into a license agreement for NOV03, a perfluorohexyloctane ophthalmic solution for the treatment of dry eye disease. Under the agreement terms, Senju Pharma will possess Japan rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize NOV03. Novaliq is eligible for upfront, milestone, and royalty payments. Specific financial details have not been disclosed. Read more here.

South Korea

HanAll Biopharma and?Daewoong Pharmaceutical?have co-invested an undisclosed sum in Vincere Biosciences in a collaboration to target Parkinson's Disease by developing small-molecule therapies. Read more here. ?

Seegene and Werfen agreed to advance discussions on the expansion of its current collaboration for the Spanish and Portuguese marketplaces through Seegene's OneSystem? Business by jointly developing syndromic qPCR assays. Read more here .

Seegene and Springer Nature signed a strategic partnership agreement to expand Seegene's OneSystem? Business. As the publisher of 3,000 journals, Springer Nature will broaden the technology's recognition to the larger scientific community. Read more here. ?

Gencurix received approval from the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for its Droplex EGFR Mutation Test v2, a companion diagnostic test designed to detect EGFR mutations commonly found in NSCLC patients and to help select an appropriate therapy strategy based on its results. Read more here.

OliX Pharmaceuticals dosed the first patient in a Phase 1 clinical trial of OLX72021, an investigational RNAi therapeutic developed to treat androgenic alopecia (male pattern baldness) by reducing the expression of the androgen receptor. A key feature of OLX72021 is its topical injection delivery into the scalp designed to maintain high concentration only in subcutaneous hair loss areas, which means it could potentially overcome systemic exposure factors such as sexual dysfunction or depression which currently limit existing treatments. Read more here.

GC Genome Corporation published a study in "Frontiers of Microbiomes" which suggests that modifying dietary habits to alter enterotypes in the gut microbiome could aid in managing and preventing hypertension. Read more here.

Singapore

Tessa Therapeutics announced promising results at the 17th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma from its early-stage study of TT11X, an off-the-shelf CAR-T therapy developed to treat Hodgkin lymphoma which elicited a clinical response in 17 of 18 patients, including 7 complete responses. Read more here.

Conferences

Click here to view the complete list of Upcoming Conferences for June 2023.

Including:

June 19, 2023: The Goldman Sachs APAC Healthcare Corporate Day will take place in Hong Kong, China.

June 19-23, 2023: The Cantor Virtual Brain Week will take place in a virtual format.

June 20, 2023: The Raymond James Private Healthcare Services Symposium will take place in New York, NY. Register here.

June 20-21, 2023: The Maxim Group Virtual Healthcare Conference will take place in a virtual format. Register here.

June 23-24, 2023: The 2023 Philly Cell and Gene Therapy Annual Conference?will take place in King of Prussia, PA. Register here.