While many of his peers elbowed each other to leap into oncology, James Xue decided to focus on rare diseases such as Hunter’s Syndrome. Now, 10 years after founding CANbridge, the CEO sat down for an audio interview with Scrip to offer his views on a flurry of key issues impacting orphan drug development in potentially the world's largest pharma market.

A NASDAQ listing has been the pinnacle for non-US biotech companies because it brings access to more specialist investors and a larger capital base. But the appetite for – and aftermarket performance of – this biotech tourism is cycle-dependent.

Public Company Edition: The last biopharma IPO in the US was on 17 February and none have been scheduled, so far, for March. Also, another SPAC merger is called off, Travere sells $275m worth of notes and Xeris secures $150m in new debt, while Ovid, Passage Bio and others are cutting jobs. 

From BeiGene to Innovent to Wuxi Biologics, executives at Chinese pharma firms are now discussing collaborations to go beyond China to become biopharma operations with a truly global presence.