The funding round for Sirnaomics was co-led by existing Chinese investor Rotating Boulder Fund, a Shenzhen-based equity investment firm, vaccines developer Walvax Biotechnology and private equity fund manager Sunshine Riverhead Capital.

Chinese healthcare-focused VC firm Sangel Capital, Longmen Capital, HongTao Capital, and Alpha Win Capital also participated in the Series D round. Meanwhile Chinese Renaissance and Huatai Financial Holdings served as the financial advisors, according to reports.

Patrick Lu, group founder, president and CEO at Siranomics, in a statement, “The syndicate of investors will not only strengthen our financial foundation, but also bring tremendous experience and expertise to Sirnaomics as it enters the next phase of growth and prepares for an initial public offering in near future.”

Last month, American multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer has agreed to buy a 9.9 percent stake in China-based Cstone Pharmaceuticals. Pfizer agreed to buy 115.93 million new shares of CStone at HK$13.37 apiece, representing a 43.8 percent premium over the closing price of HK$9.30.

CStone said in a security exchange filing that it will use the proceeds from the share sale to fund development activities and strategic collaboration.

It was reported that the transaction has received the necessary internal approvals of both companies. Closing is not subject to approval by CStone’s shareholders. While Goldman Sachs is acting as financial advisor to CStone, Cooley LLP served as legal advisor. Clifford Chance LLP served as Pfizer’s legal advisor.

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Pfizer has agreed to buy 115.93 million new shares of CStone at HK$13.37 apiece, representing a 43.8 percent premium over the closing price of HK$9.30 on Tuesday.

CStone said in a security exchange filing that it will use the proceeds from the share sale to fund development activities and strategic collaboration.

It is reported that the transaction has received the necessary internal approvals of both companies. Closing is not subject to approval by CStone’s shareholders. While Goldman Sachs is acting as financial advisor to CStone, Cooley LLP served as legal advisor. Clifford Chance LLP served as Pfizer’s legal advisor.

The Shanghai-based pharmaceuticals company said the deal would allow it to focus on product development and strengthen its ability to commercialise CS1001 – an anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody.

CStone and Pfizer will develop and commercialise additional late-stage oncology therapies in Greater China, Pfizer said in a statement.

Frank Jiang, chairman and chief executive officer at CStone told the media, “Pfizer’s investment in CStone is a statement of its confidence in the potential of our anti-PD-L1 treatment and recognition of our research and development capabilities. By joining forces with Pfizer and leveraging its commercialisation infrastructure, we will ensure that patients across a vastly expanded number of markets in China have quicker access to our highly differentiated PD-L1 treatment. In addition, we have advanced our transformation into a full-fledged biopharmaceutical company by forging a collaboration that will enable us to accelerate development and commercialisation of globally innovative therapies for Chinese patients.”

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If the deal goes through, it would be the biggest healthcare deal on record and the merged entity will have a market valuation of around $240 billion.

However, sources have revealed that no decision has been made as of yet with regard to the potential merger between AstraZeneca and Gilead Science.

While AstraZeneca is co-developing of one of the fastest-moving experimental coronavirus vaccines, Gilead, on the other hand, is the maker of the only US-approved treatment.

Even though the companies haven’t entered any formal discussions, the mere suggestion of the mega-merger is a sign that the industry is getting back to something resembling business as usual.

AstraZeneca, which is currently valued at $140 billion, is the UK’s biggest drugmaker by market capitalisation and has developed treatments for conditions from cancer to cardiovascular disease. Gilead is the creator of the remdesivir drug that’s received US approval for use with coronavirus patients. The company is valued at $96 billion.

Recent media reports suggest that AstraZeneca is on track to begin rolling out up to two billion doses of a coronavirus vaccine in September, given it manages to complete successful trials.

AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot told BBC radio, “So far we’re still on track… we are starting to manufacture this vaccine right now, and we have to have it ready to be used by the time we have the results.”

“Our present assumption is that we will have the data by the end of the summer, by August, so in September we should know whether we have an effective vaccine or not.”

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