WeDoctor, Mason Group and Aldworth Management agreed to pay up to $510 million to acquire an 89.5% stake in Genea, an Australian fertility treatment company (see story). Genea’s assisted reproductive technologies are used in more than 600 clinics across 60 countries. Earlier this year, the three-company consortium formed a Hong Kong IVF clinic called Reproductive Healthcare. Mason Group merged its Reproductive Healthcare subsidiary with The Women’s Clinic and brought in WeDoctor, an online China healthcare portal owned by Tencent (HK: 0700), and Aldworth Management as strategic investors.
Huadong Medicine (SHZ: 000963) has proposed a $210 million takeover of Britain’s Sinclair Pharma (L: SPH) (see story). Sinclair, which makes several aesthetic skin treatments, has agreed to the proposed terms, though Huadong has until early October to make a formal offer. The possibility of a deal was originally announced in early July, and Huadong has requested three extensions of the 30-day window before arriving at an agreement. Sinclair offers its products in Britain and other western countries, though not in China.
Harbour BioMed completed an $85 million Series B financing, which it will use to advance its pipeline that includes both clinical and discovery stage programs (see story). GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, led the financing. Formed in late 2016, Harbour started with an initial $50 million in capital and immediately acquired Harbour Antibodies BV, a Dutch company with two proprietary transgenic mouse platforms, though Harbour has been actively in-licensing drug development projects. The company is headquartered in Boston, with R&D operations in Shanghai and the antibody platform in Rotterdam.
Jacobio Pharma, a Beijing clinical-stage biotech, raised $55 million in a C funding led by Qiming and Hillhouse (see story). The company’s lead asset, a small molecule oncology drug, has started a US Phase I trial in patients with solid tumor cancers and has been approved to begin a similar trial in China. Jacobio said it has ten projects in development. It is focused on innovative drugs for unmet needs in China and abroad, especially for cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases.
