source：BioSpectrum Asia

BrightGene Plans $50 Million Shanghai STAR Board IPO

BrightGene Bio-Medical of Suzhou said the Shanghai Stock Exchange has accepted its filing for a STAR Board IPO. The company expects to raise $50 million in the offering. BrightGene focuses on innovative drugs along with difficult-to-make generic drug APIs and finished drugs. It is developing immunoncology treatments and orally available GLP-1RA peptides for type 2 diabetes. Earlier this year, BrightGene completed an $80 million pre-IPO funding led by Sequoia China.

source：ChinaBio Today

Spet.5, 2019DISCOVERY

CollPlant Biotechnologies to secure $5.5 Million

CollPlant, an Israel based regenerative medicine company, has entered ＩＮＴＯ definitive agreements for up to $6.5 million funding in convertible loans. The capital raise is by way of a non-brokered private placement with Ami Sagi, the Company's largest shareholder, and U.S. accredited investors with many years of deep experience in 3D printing. Under the terms of the transaction, the initial closing with Mr. Sagi occurred on September 3 2019 where Mr. Sagi funded the Company with $2.0 million. The U.S. accredited investors have agreed to purchase $3.5 million in convertible loans, and the Company expects to complete the initial closing with the U.S. investors by September 5, 2019, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Mr. Sagi has agreed to fund an additional $1.0 million following the execution of a license and/or a co-development agreement between CollPlant and a strategic business partner, if such were to occur. The convertible loans automatically convert ＩＮＴＯ the Company's American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at a conversion price of $4.00 per ADS following approval of the transaction by CollPlant's shareholders. Mr. Sagi and the U.S. investors will also receive three-year warrants to purchase up to an aggregate of 1,625,000 ADSs exercisable at an exercise price of $4.00 per ADS, subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions.

"This fund raising is intended to support the advancement of our pipeline in the fields of medical aesthetics and 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs," stated Yehiel Tal, the Chief Executive Officer of CollPlant. "We are now focused on facilitating our development programs of dermal fillers and regenerative breast implants. Our collaboration with United Therapeutics, which is using our BioInk technology for 3D printing lungs, is progressing, and we continue to expand our business collaborations with large international healthcare companies that seek to implement our revolutionary regenerative medicine technology. We are very pleased to have entered ＩＮＴＯ this transaction with Mr. Sagi and the other investors."

source：BioSpectrum Asia

Quan Capital Closes Second Healthcare Fund at $275 Million

Quan Capital, a Shanghai healthcare venture firm, closed its second fund with $275 million in commitments, according to media reports. In 2018, Quan announced it would begin fundraising for second fund with a $300 million target, one year after it closed its $150 million initial fund. Quan is very closely allied with Zai Lab. Samantha Du, PhD, heads both companies and other members of Zai's senior management are also part of Quan's team. Quan seeks venture and growth investments in disruptive companies globally and in China.

source：ChinaBio Today

Spet.4, 2019DISCOVERY

Kyowa Kirin gets FDA nod for Parkinson’s drug

Japan headquartered Kyowa Kirin has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval for NOURIANZTM (istradefylline) for use as adjunctive treatment to levodopa/carbidopa in adult patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experiencing “OFF” episodes.

"Today’s approval is the culmination of decades of perseverance in exploring the science and clinical effects of istradefylline and inhibition of adenosine A2A receptor signaling in people with Parkinson’s disease,” said Jeffrey S. Humphrey, MD, Chief Development Officer of Kyowa Kirin Pharmaceutical Development, Inc.

“In clinical studies, istradefylline, used as adjunctive treatment to levodopa/carbidopa in adult patients with PD experiencing “OFF” episodes, was associated with a decrease in OFF Time and increase in ON Time without troublesome dyskinesia. We are grateful for the FDA approval and for the many dedicated scientists and patients whose participation in our research programs has resulted in a new treatment option for Parkinson's disease.”

“Istradefylline is an Adenosine A2A receptor antagonist, and is a novel non-dopaminergic pharmacologic approach to treating OFF episodes for people living with PD,” said Dr. Stuart Isaacson, MD, Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center of Boca Raton, Florida.

“Based on data from four clinical studies, istradefylline taken as an adjunct to levodopa significantly improved OFF time and demonstrated a well-tolerated safety profile. Istradefylline represents an important new treatment option for patients with Parkinson's disease who experience “OFF” episodes.”

The FDA approval of NOURIANZ is based on findings from randomized, multi-center, doubleblind, placebo-controlled trials in patients with PD taking a stable dose of levodopa/carbidopa with or without other PD medications. The Kyowa Kirin Group companies strive to contribute to the health and well-being of people around the world by creating new value through the pursuit of advances in life sciences and technologies.

source：BioSpectrum Asia

Temasek, Hillhouse Pay $259 Million for 2% Stake in China's Aier Eye Hospital

Temasek, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, and Beijing's Hillhouse Capital Group will acquire a 2% stake in Aier Eye Hospital Group for $259 million. The shares will be sold by Aier Medical Investment Group and the company's controlling shareholder, Bang Chen, the Chairman/Founder of Aier. Aier Medical Investment Group buys properties in urban areas, which it leases to the hospital group. Aier offers lasik surgeries plus other ophthalmic and optometry services from hospitals in China and around the world.

source：BioSpectrum Asia

Spet.3, 2019DISCOVERY

Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma buys Indian API plant

Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services ("Aji Bio-Pharma"), a leading provider of biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing services, has announced its intention to purchase the remaining 50 percent ownership interest in its Visakhapatnam, India joint venture, Granules OmniChem Private Limited (GOC) from its joint venture partner, Granules India Limited. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The GOC joint venture was formed in 2011 by S.A. Ajinomoto OmniChem N.V. (now doing business as Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services) and Granules India Limited, providing small molecule intermediates and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturing to the pharmaceutical industry.

"This investment is an important follow-up to Aji Bio-Pharma's October 2018 small and large molecule business integration and bolsters our commitment to simplifying our clients' supply chains, while providing a wide range of CDMO offerings," said David Enloe, CEO, Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services. "GOC has been a well-run producer of high-quality API since its formation, which was designed, constructed and is managed based on our Belgian sites' GMP operating standards and quality systems. This allows us to provide a seamless experience for our clients as they continue to deepen their partnerships with us on key programs in their product pipelines."

"We are extremely pleased to now be a fully integrated member of Aji Bio-Pharma," said K.V.V. Raju, CEO, Granules OmniChem Pvt. Ltd. He further added, "As an official part of this CDMO, our team can further enhance Aji Bio-Pharma's ability to deliver value to our customers and contribute to the improving the health of humankind mission."

Conclusion of this transaction is subject to fulfillment of certain closing conditions and customary government approvals. Closing is expected to be completed during fourth quarter 2019.

source：BioSpectrum Asia

Esco Ventures announces launch of Carmine Therapeutics

Singapore based Esco Ventures is pleased to announce the launch of Carmine Therapeutics and execution of an exclusive license agreement for the background technology developed at the labs of Prof Minh Le and Prof Jiahai Shi at the City University of Hong Kong. Carmine Therapeutics plans to establish a site in Cambridge, MA and to expand in the US at the end of 2019.

Carmine Therapeutics is developing novel types of gene therapies that utilize extracellular vesicles (EVs) produced in the laboratory from red blood cells (RBCs) and that solve many unmet medical needs.

RBCEVs are homogeneous, 150 – nanometer vesicles that are also produced physiologically by RBCs as they age. Several features make RBCEVs an ideal delivery vehicle for gene therapy.

1) They are homogenous and can be produced in huge amounts at low cost. 2) RBCs are routinely used for blood transfusion and their secreted vesicles are biocompatible and non-immunogenic. 3) They can be frozen and thawed multiple times for long-term storage and can be administered repeatedly without adverse effects. 4) RBCEVs have a unique natural biodistribution and can deliver cargos to several organs additional to the liver, including bone marrow cells. 5) They can be targeted to specific cells and tissues using covalently attached peptides or single chain antibodies.

Using this proprietary technology, RBCEVs can be loaded efficiently with nucleic acids up to 10 kilobases in size and they can deliver their payload efficiently both to cultured cells and to tissues and tumors in vivo. The powerful combination of a robust vector and a unique payload enables to overcome most of the limitations of existing gene therapies in the clinic.

Carmine Therapeutics has exclusively in-licensed and is also developing a comprehensive portfolio of intellectual property encompassing the key aspects of the REGENT Platform and REGENT product candidates.

source：BioSpectrum Asia

Spet.2, 2019DISCOVERY

Proteona and AI Singapore partner to improve cell therapies and IO treatments

Proteona Pte. Ltd., on 30 August 2019, announced its participation in AI Singapore’s 100 Experiments (100E) programme to develop AI tools for single-cell multi-omics data analysis. The project is being conducted in collaboration with Prof Wong Limsoon, Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Chair Professor from the National University of Singapore (NUS) School of Computing, a leading expert in bioinformatics and computational biology. Together with Proteona bioinformaticians and data scientists, the team aims to solve key challenges in single-cell data analysis using artificial intelligence tools.

A key obstacle of single-cell data analysis is combining datasets from different sources such as different patient samples and obtaining robust cell clustering and cell-type annotation. Single-cell analysis often leads to the discovery of novel cell populations with features that had not been previously observed. Clinical samples, such as tumour biopsies, are known to be very heterogeneous, making cell type identification very challenging. Moreover, single-cell analysis is prone to noise and batch-effects that make comparisons across experiments difficult.

As a result of these challenges, cell clustering and cell annotation usually require extensive manual intervention. This is time-consuming, requires specialized knowledge and expertise, and is prone to human error and bias.

“Batch effects are prevalent in -omics data. This is particularly pronounced in single-cell measurements. Profiles from one batch are not directly compatible with that from another batch.” says Prof Limsoon Wong, NUS School of Computing. “The AI-driven components here will facilitate a more convenient and explicit identification of the specific protein complexes and biological circuits relevant to cell-types and states.”

With this collaboration, the team will further develop their robust computational workflows for knowledge-driven analysis, with an AI-based system trained using Proteona’s in-house annotated datasets. Proteona’s ESCAPE™ RNA-Seq technology and services simultaneously measure both proteomic and tranional expression at single-cell resolution. The developed AI-analysis will leverage this unique modality to enable deeper insights ＩＮＴＯ single-cell biology.

“An immediate outcome of this collaboration will be a tool to improve the quality of results presented to our customers. It will save them time in annotating known cell types and correcting for batch effects. This platform is also used internally as a way for building our database of cell types and cell states which is then used for better annotating our customer’s data. We will also use these tools for our internal programs in biomarker discovery and diagnostic development,” says Dr Andreas Schmidt, CEO of Proteona.

“We see the merging of biotechnology and data-driven IT as one of the biggest value drivers in the health industry. With Proteona`s single-cell proteogenomic data platform the company is in a unique position to impact health decisions for therapy development and the clinic,” explains Chou Fang Soong, General Partner Pix Vine Capital, one of Proteona´s investors.

With founders Prof Gene Yeo of UCSD, Prof Jonathan Scolnick of NUS and Deputy Director of the Molecular Engineering Laboratory, A*STAR, Dr Shawn Hoon, Proteona has strong roots in cutting edge academic discoveries around the world. The Proteona - AI Singapore consortium actively seeks additional partners from the cell therapy and haematology-oncology communities to contribute to their international single-cell analysis initiative.

source：BioSpectrum Asia

Huimei Closes $30 Million Round for AI-based Hospital Clinical Decision Support

Beijing Huimei Healthcare closed a $30 million series C round funding led by Qiming Venture Partners to continue developing its AI-based Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS). CDSS offers support for medical diagnosis, combining natural language processing (NLP), deep learning and other AI-based technologies for diagnoses and clinical data management. Founded in 2015, Huimei is partnered with the US-based Mayo Clinic as a vehicle to bring medical best practices to China. Hillhouse and Mayo provided initial funding for the joint venture company.

source：ChinaBio Today返回搜狐，查看更多