Shanghai Fosun Pharma (SHA: 600196; HK: 2196) is one of the companies bidding to acquire a 70% stake in India's Symbiotec Pharma, which supplies steroid-hormone APIs to global markets (see story). Actis, a PE fund, paid $55 million for the 70% block of stock in 2013, and it is now offering its shares for about $350 million, a $500 million valuation for Symbiotec. Symbiotec has revenues of about $60 million per year. Fosun is currently closing its $1.1 billion purchase of a 74% stake in India's Gland Pharma, a generic drugmaker.

Zhejiang Huahai Pharma (SHA: 600521) plans to float a $152 million bond offering to build a biopharma facility in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province (see story). The company will devote almost 70% of the proceeds for the construction of the new facility and the remainder to three smaller projects. Known mainly as an API maker, particularly for "pril" generics, Huahai has been expanding into finished drugs.  

Earlier this year, Beijing's Global Health Drug Discovery Institute officially opened its doors (see story). The GHDDI is a non-profit, independent drug R&D institute founded by three entities: the Gates Foundation, the Beijing municipal government and Tsinghua University. It is backed by $100 million, which will support the institute for its first five years. The GHDDI will follow the Gates Foundation's interest in developing effective, inexpensive drugs for diseases prevalent in low-resource areas of the world, while it also assembles a screening library of molecules that have the potential for repurposing to other diseases.  

Jacobson Pharma (HK: 2633) of Hong Kong raised $64 million in a private placement (see story). The company, which supplies 30% of Hong Kong's generic drugs, intends to use the proceeds for M&A, including in-licensing and direct investment into "technology-oriented biopharma products." Currently, Jacobson's business involves traditional Chinese medicines for the Hong Kong market. One year ago, Jacobson completed an $85 million IPO on the Hong Kong exchange, 45% of which was earmarked for strategic acquisitions.  

Trials and Approvals

ImmunoMet Therapeutics (KS: 009420), a US spinoff of Korea's HanAll Biopharma, began a Phase I trial of its lead candidate in patients with solid tumor cancers (see story). IM156 is an oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) inhibitor. ImmunoMet, which uses cellular metabolism to develop novel anti-tumor and immuno-oncology therapies, is headquartered at Houston's JLABS, a biotech incubator established by Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) at the Texas Medical Center, where MD Anderson Cancer Center is also located.