Cancer therapeutics developers continues received the most investments. 28 Chinese oncology drugmakers obtained funding totaling $788 million, representing 61% of all funding.
Only four company have broken the $100 million ceiling this quarter with none in March. The leading funding recipient is Varnotech Biopharm, a biotech focused on vaccine research and development. The company has closed a Series B financing round of RMB 600 million ($83 million) to advance the clinical trials of its herpes zoster and influenza vaccines, as well as the constructure of vaccine and adjuvant manufacture facilities.
Two Chinese drug developers completed publicly listing in March.
On March 13, YS Biopharma began trading on Nasdaq under the symbols “YS” by de-SPAC merger with Summit Healthcare Acquisition, a publicly traded special acquisition company. YS Biopharma is a biopharma company focusing on new generations of vaccines and therapeutic biologics for infections diseases and cancer.
Qyuns Therapeutics listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under Chapter 18A of the Hong Kong Listing Rules on March 20. The offering raised approximately HK$239 million ($30.5 million). Founded in 2015, Qyuns is a clinical-stage biotech company exclusively focused on biologic therapies for autoimmune and allergic diseases, with a self-developed drug pipeline and an established commercial-scale in-house manufacturing capability.
One new Chinese biotech M&A deal announced in March. Nuvation Bio has made a definitive agreement to acquire Chinese biotech company AnHeart Therapeutics through an all-stock transaction to bolster its oncology pipeline.
Post-acquisition, the former AnHeart’s shareholders will hold 33% of the merged entity. Nuvation Bio’s current stockholders will own around 67%.
Drug asset deals slowed down significantly in Q1, with only 24 deals amounting to $5.5 billion. This is a notable drop from 54 deals totaling $24.6 billion in Q4 2023.
In-licensing deals are six amounting to $337 million in Q1.
Out-licensing also hit a slump in Q1 with half as many deals as in the previous quarter and only 18% of the total value.
The notable drug approvals in China are as below.
