Plus deals involving Eisai/Sato, Keymed/Belenos, Taiho/Arcus, IASO/Innovent, Biocytogen/SOTIO, Ensol/Spine, TMS/Hokkaido University and Yuhan/Ubix.

One Chinese biotech executive is entertaining hopes of China’s domestic market for novel drugs growing to CNY300bn ($41bn). However, the country’s public payer spent just CNY90bn on such products in 2023 and is expected to increase expenditure to more than CNY100bn this year.

Having initiated China-only Phase III trials with three oncology and autoimmune drug candidates, HUTCHMED is looking for partnerships to take the molecules to the clinic in the US.

AI specialist METiS Pharmaceuticals raked in $100m in a series C round, while four other deals backed by venture capital and private equity firms crossed the CNY100m ($14m) mark in the latest fundraisings by Chinese biopharma companies.

China’s National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA) seems determined to require pharma firms to comply with the agency’s request to cap the prices of innovative drugs, according to a senior official directly involved in annual price negotiations.

Positive clinical outcomes for Hengrui and Innovent/Lilly’s obesity candidates presented at ADA were based on trials that enrolled Chinese subjects and were characterized by fewer women and less severe obesity than similar Western studies. Even so, some of the data appear to stack up well against western rival drugs.