Week in Review: China Life Science Starts off 2019 with $425 Million in Deals

Deals and Financings   Apollomics, a Hangzhou innovative oncology biopharma previously known as CBT (a spin out from CrownBio), raised $100 million in a Series B financing; Schrödinger of New York City closed an $85 million round for its drug discovery platform based on advanced molecular simulations; the financing was led by the Gates Foundation and WuXi AppTec; BrightGene Bio-Medical of Suzhou completed an $80 million pre-IPO funding led by Sequoia China to develop novel drugs and difficult-to-make generics; Everest Medicines, a Shanghai startup, acquired China rights to a MDR gram-negative antibiotic from Spero Therapeutics in a $61.5 million agreement; Medbanks Network Technology, a Beijing company, completed a $59 million Series D funding for its China-specific tumor database platform; Apic Bio, a Cambridge , MA gene therapy company, completed a $40 million Series A financing led by Morningside Venture of Hong Kong ; AirDoc of Beijing closed a Series B+ round to advance its disease diagnosis and healthcare data-mining services; Ascentage Pharma of Shanghai out-licensed rights for a small molecule candidate to treat age-related diseases of the eye to San Francisco 's Unity Biotech; 3SBio, a Shenyang biopharma, will partner with Samsung Bioepis to develop and commercialize multiple Bioepis biosimilars in China ; CANbridge Pharma of Beijing and WuXi Biologics have added four drug candidates to their rare disease drug development partnership; Adagene, a Suzhou BioBay antibody discovery company, will collaborate to discover a novel CAR-T candidate with a US NIH scientist; Shanghai 's Ascentage Pharma announced a five-year collaboration with the MD Anderson Cancer Center for clinical development of five cancer therapies; Trials and Approvals   Aslan Pharma will begin a US Phase II trial of ASLAN003, an oral inhibitor of DHODH, in patients with acute myeloid leukemia;  Cellular Biomedicine, a Shanghai immunotherapy/stem cell company, started a China trial of its anti-BCMA CAR-T therapy for multiple myeloma; Biohaven Pharma of New Haven reported China 's NMPA has accepted its IND filing for rimegepant as a treatment for migraine. Stock symbols: (SHA: 603259; HK: 2359) (NSDQ: ASLN, TPEx: 6497) (NSDQ: UBX) (HK: 1530) (HK: 2269) (NSDQ: ASLN, TPEx: 6497) (NSDQ: CBMG) (NYSE: BHVN) Share this with colleagues: // //