China’s biotech sector continues to blossom as far as fund raising goes. For 4 months in a row, the sector is witnessing increasing amounts of fund raise. While private deals (VC/PE) led the increase in April and May, in June and July, it is public market fund raising that drove fund raising growth.
In July, the total fund raise by Chinese biotech companies from private and public sources crossed USD3.5B in July, an all time record. As can be seen in the chart above, this figure is rising steadily since April’30.
The figure was boosted by a USD2B follow on raise by BeiGene, a biotech pioneer from China, US biotech giant, Amgen, which holds 20.1% in Beigene, participated, putting in USD421m.
Another big public market raise was by Shanghai Junshi Biosciences, which completed a $692 million IPO on the Shanghai STAR Board, becoming the first biopharma to have a dual listing on the Hong Kong and STAR Exchanges. Junshi staged a $394 million Hong Kong IPO in late 2018.
In private market deals, the largest was by Shanghai HaiHe Biopharma. Warburg Pincus led a USD171m Series C round in Shanghai HaiHe Biopharma. The company has ten candidates in clinical trials, including three at Phase III stage.