Following in the steps of Merck & Co. and GSK, Pfizer is turning to a Chinese partner to more broadly market one of its top vaccines in the country - but the US firm is going one step further.

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.

Private Company Edition: Kriya raised the first $270m of its now $430m-plus series C venture capital round in May 2022 and has raised more than $600m to date. Also, Nexo launched with $60m in series A cash, Ossium brought in $52m in series A financing and cell therapy CDMO Kincell launched with $36m.

Junshi is the latest Chinese company to announce plans to expand into Southeast Asia, where its compatriot firms are also eyeing large market potential and are set to benefit from less stringent reviews of China-only clinical data due to fewer questions around ethnic differences versus the US.