Biotech IPOs on the Chinese mainland have dried up since June 2023 due to regulatory tightening, but Hong Kong is still open to listings of pre-revenue ventures and has seen its first offering of this year.

China’s top securities regulator is slowing down the review of initial public offering applications across the board to “stabilize” the stock market. But event prior to the move, Chinese biotechs were operating already under a continuously tightening IPO environment.

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.

Device companies raised 50% more in Q1 2016 than the previous quarter, reaching $1.8 billion and led by debt offerings; diagnostic imaging acquisitions, such as Toshiba Medical Systems, were abundant. Diagnostics financings double in Q1, mostly from venture funding, including strong showing from liquid biopsy companies.