China’s top securities regulator is slowing down the review of initial public offering applications across the board to “stabilize” the stock market. But event prior to the move, Chinese biotechs were operating already under a continuously tightening IPO environment.

Plus deals involving Kelun Biotech, Pierre Fabre/Vertical, Novo Nordisk/Broad Institute, ABL Bio/Synaffix, Kriya/Tramontane, Palisade/Giiant and more.

A Chinese court decision sheds light on how Chinese major Hengrui Medicine is seeking to reduce or avoid potential losses worth up to $27m following regulatory setbacks with the tubulin inhibitor plinabulin, in-licensed from BeyondSpring in 2021.

Plus deals involving Astellas/Menarini, Maruho/Fortress Biotech, Zenas/Bristol Myers Squibb, Huadong Medicine/MC2 and more.

Local industry insiders argue that a full-fledged drug regulator would boost the chances of making Hong Kong an international innovation and biotechnology center, by elevating the city's role from a transit corridor to a platform for biomedicine review and approval.

Some of China's makers of COVID-19 antivirals are fast-tracking neutralizing antibodies and peptide fusion inhibitors in clinical trials, while vaccine developers are embroiled in a tougher situation against the mutating coronavirus.