Five Chinese bioventures have raised more than $70m from venture capital and private equity funds since late May.

With the first half of 2022 ending, two Chinese developers of innovative drugs - antibody specialist Chongqing Genrix Biopharmaceutical and Suzhou Teligene, which focuses on small molecules, are looking to go public on Shanghai’s STAR Market, ending a recent drought of biopharma listings.

China’s Center for Drug Evaluation has introduced a risk-based process to initiate on-site inspections related to drug registrations. It is hoped the novel system will suit the current capacity of auditor teams against a backdrop of an ongoing spike in product approval applications in the country since 2019.

While China approved a record number of innovative oncology drugs in 2021, the correlation between their novel mechanisms of action or targeted indication and clinical benefit is not statistically insignificant, a well-known researcher claims in a new report.

To date this year, not a single innovative drug-focused biotech has filed for an initial public offering on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Apart from a suspected tightening of listing rules, IPO disclosures and the plummeting share prices of public companies seem to be looming large over bioventures aiming considering floating on the bourse.

Fresh out of an impressive new round of financing and armed with $32m, Shanghai's Degron Therapeutics is aiming for nothing but first-in-class treatments. Its co-founder and CSO shares views on creating original innovative drugs from inside China in an exclusive interview with Scrip.