Deals and Financings
Shanghai Pharma (SHA: 601607; HK: 02607) may bid $4 billion to acquire Stada Arzneimittel (DE: STAGn), a German generic drugmaker (see story). Stada has already accepted a similar offer from a consortium formed by two private equity firms — Bain and Cinven. However, Shanghai Pharma has until June 8 to make an offer at a higher price. One of the problems with Shanghai Pharma’s entry will be Beijing, which recently introduced restrictions on foreign investment. Shanghai Pharma may team up with European PE fund, Advent, or some other PE firm. Earlier, Fosun Pharma considered making a bid for Stada, though it is no longer in contention.
Athenex, a US-China biopharma, filed to raise $100 million in a US IPO on the Nasdaq exchange. Athenex has developed a platform that develops oral formulations of existing chemotherapies (see story). Its lead product is an oral form of paclitaxel (Oraxol), which it is developing along with oral irinotecan, docetaxel and topotecan. In 2016, Athenex raised $200 million from New York State — the company is headquartered in Buffalo, New York — in return for a promise to provide manufacturing jobs. One year earlier, Athenex struck a similar deal with Chongqing, China to build two manufacturing facilities there.
Beijing Sinobioway added five new Conditionally Active Biologic antibody targets to its collaboration with BioAtla, a San Diego-Beijing biotech (see story). Sinobioway will pay $50 million to BioAtla for China rights to the new targets, consisting of $30 million in cash and $20 million in manufacturing and development costs (at a discounted rate). In 2015, Sinobioway in-licensed greater China rights to four CAB candidates from BioAtla. The two companies have also signed a new services agreement that calls for Sinobioway to provide BioAtla with development and manufacturing services.
Aslan Pharma (TT: 6497) of Singapore completed the competitive auction part of its Taiwan IPO, selling 10.4 million shares at a weighted average bid of NT$68.92 ($2.29) (see story). The company will now start a five-day public subscription offering of 2.6 million additional shares at the average price, indicating Aslan’s IPO will raise $30 million. Aslan has also announced that, in conjunction with the IPO, it has opened a new office in Taiwan that will support its growing business in Taiwan and Asia. The company’s shares will begin trading on the Taipei Exchange on the first day of June.
