The 2021 China BioMed Innovation and Investment Conference (CBIIC) was held in Suzhou from 25 to 27 September 2021, organized by the China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Research Development Association with special support from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The opening ceremony of the conference attracted over 100 institutions and industry leaders, experts, scholars, entrepreneurs, heads of renowned investment institutions and media from domestic and international investment institutions, pharmaceutical innovation companies and research institutes in China, etc. Nearly 2,000 people gathered to gain an in-depth understanding of the new changes, trends and challenges in pharmaceutical policies, and to discuss the new future of pharmaceutical innovation development and capital integration in the context of global pharmaceutical development in the new era. The conference consists of 49 keynote presentations and 115 roadshows, covering a number of countries including Denmark, Japan, Netherlands, Canada and the United States, broadening the scope of capital to innovation areas and promoting innovation to the world.
As a partner of the Hong Kong Bio-Med Innotech Association, NAI Interactive Ltd. has sent staff to this largest industry event in China’s healthcare industry for five consecutive years, bringing us first-hand information on the industry and market dynamics. At a time when countries around the world are still plagued by the COVID-19 epidemic, it is a great achievement for the Chinese healthcare industry to host an offline conference of this scale. On the one hand, this shows the strong foundation of China’s health care sector and the strength of its epidemic control. On the other hand, it shows that the Chinese healthcare sector is booming and the market is very enthusiastic.
During the conference, Hans Stone, our representative, had in-depth discussions with the participating healthcare companies to understand their investment areas and project preferences, including Hengrui Pharma, Fosun Pharmaceutical, Qilu Pharmaceutical, Salubris Pharmaceuticals, CR Pharma and CSPC Pharmaceutical. There is currently a high demand for the licence-in of innovative projects by Chinese medical companies, with a particular preference for products that have entered the clinical phases. For example, Salubris Pharmaceuticals announced on September 23 that it had signed an agreement with D&D PHARMATECH, INC. to acquire the exclusive rights to license in the intellectual property and technical information related to DD01, an innovative drug owned by D&D, in mainland China for a total amount of approximately US$27 million. DD01 is a long-acting GLP-1R/GCGR dual agonist currently in a Phase I clinical trial in the US in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and obese type II diabetes.
Chinese companies are not only active in bringing in projects from overseas, but also in domestic project investment and licensing deals. Hengrui Pharmaceutical announced on September 6 that it had acquired exclusive commercialization rights for the third-generation anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody MIL62 in Greater China (including Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau) from Tianguang Shi Biotechnology. And the two parties are working together on the clinical development of MIL62 in combination with the Hengrui’s products. In the first half of this year, Haichang Biotech licensed out its interest in the commercialization of HC007 in its R&D product pipeline, except for the US market, to Kexing Biopharm. Kexing Biopharm will pay to Haichang Biotech the down-payment and milestone payments of almost RMB70 million in aggregate according to the progress of research and development and commercialization, industrialization and transfer of licensed interests of the specific product; at the same time, it will pay to Haichang Biotech the sales royalties according to the terms and in the manner agreed by both parties.
During the three-day conference with a full agenda, Hans Stone, who has attended the conference for five consecutive years, had in-depth exchanges with the old friends attending the conference to understand the latest development of each enterprise; at the same time, he made more new friends in the industry, expanding his network. This lays a solid foundation for helping domestic and foreign enterprises to cooperate and match.
