Hundreds of executives showed up at an inaugural biotech summit organized by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, setting the stage for a showdown between the territory and the most popular destination for biotech IPOs, Nasdaq in the US. Despite recent rule changes to allow pre-revenue biotechs to gain a listing more easily, executives still see hurdles that are associated with Hong Kong's close proximity to the very market it is trying to allure, mainland China.

Armed with massive amounts of data, China is poised to make a dent in big data-driven innovation and artificial intelligence applications including smart health. A policy push to encourage the development of novel drugs also means there may be more biotech unicorns and innovative therapies to attract investment inflows.

Medtech companies brought in $2.3 billion in financing in Q1 2017, a slight decrease from Q4 2016; device M&A deals totaled $5.8 billion, a sharp decline from the prior quarter, but there were some billion-dollar deals. Q1 diagnostics financings – totaling $1.2 billion (thanks to a $900 million Series B round by cancer diagnostics company Grail) – showed a significant increase over the preceding quarter, as did the Q1 M&As at $700 million versus the previous $87 million.