Suzhou’s CStone Pharma has filed for a Hong Kong IPO (see story). Founded in 2015, CStone has quickly built a portfolio of 14 oncology candidates. The company says its three core products are IO drugs — PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 antibodies — which will be paired with other of its assets to offer combination therapies. As part of its development, CStone has in-licensed molecularly targeted compounds from Agios (a $424 million deal) and Blueprint (a $386 million, three-drug agreement), which CStone will develop in greater China.
LG Chem Life Sciences of South Korea formed a nearly $1 billion IO collaboration with Cue Biopharma (Nasdaq: CUE), a Boston area immunotherapy company (see story). LG will have Asia rights, including China, to three Cue IO candidates, all of them in preclinical development. LG will provide its biologics manufacturing expertise to the portfolio. LG paid an unspecified upfront fee, invested $5 million in Cue, and will be responsible for up to $400 million in milestones. In addition, LG will have a two-year option on global rights to another Cue candidate in a deal worth over $500 million in fees and potential milestones.
Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A) closed its $250 million acquisition of ACEA Biosciences, a San Diego-Hangzhou company that provides cell analysis tools (see story). ACEA is focused on real-time, live cell analysis of cell function and metabolism. Founded in 2002, the company has manufacturing and R&D facilities in Hangzhou. In 2015, ACEA raised $30 million from China investors Qiming and Lilly Asia Ventures. Agilent says ACEA’s offerings are complementary to its own portfolio of lab tools for life science, diagnostics and applied chemical markets.
I-Mab Biopharma of Tianjin in-licensed greater China rights to a novel checkpoint inhibitor from Germany’s MorphoSys (FSE/NSDQ: MOR) in a $105 million agreement (see story). I-Mab will also conduct proof-of-concept clinical studies of MOR210, a preclinical C5aR antibody. In return for the proof-of-concept studies, MorphoSys will pay I-Mab single digit royalties on any revenues outside greater China. One year ago, I-Mab in-licensed rights to a MorphoSys anti-CD38 mAb in a $120 million deal.
