Deals and Financings

WuXi AppTec, China’s largest CRO/CMO, and Juno Therapeutics (JUNO) of Seattle have formed a 50-50 joint venture to bring Juno’s promising immuno-oncology drugs to China (see story). The new company, JW Biotechnology, will be based in Shanghai and will eventually own China rights to Juno’s products, once certain unspecified conditions are met. Juno will be paid an upfront payment in equity (presumably JV equity), plus milestone payments and royalties on sales. WuXi will use its CRO capabilities to pursue China approval of the products. Through its venture arm, WuXi has already invested in Juno. 

Sorrento Therapeutics (SRNE) of San Diego raised $150 million in a private placement that was led by Ally Bridge Group, a China-US life science private equity investor (see story). The transaction also involved Sorrento’s South Korean partner, Yuhan (KS: 000100), and several institutional investors. Sorrento is a clinical-stage company that develops novel immunotherapies for cancer and autoimmune/inflammation. In August 2015, Sorrento in-licensed four monoclonal antibodies from China’s Mabtech, consisting of two biobetters and two biosimilars. 

Ally Bridge Group of Hong Kong and San Francisco participated in the Series B funding of LinkDoc Technology, a Beijing company that is gathering medical records from cancer patients (see story). Using the records, LincDoc will offer doctors evidence-based best practices for personalized medicine, and it will allow pharmaceutical companies to access the database for drug development and marketing. Financial details were not disclosed. 

Essex Bio (HK: 1061) of Zhuhai partnered with Abpro, a Massachusetts antibody discovery company, to co-develop several monoclonal antibodies in immuno-oncology and ophthalmology (see story). Essex made a $3.5 million equity investment in Abpro plus an undisclosed amount from its affiliates. Essex will have rights to the drug candidates in China, while Abpro will retain ex-China rights, with cross-royalties from each region.