Week in Review: Hong Kong's Cirina Merges with GRAIL for Early Stage Cancer Diagnostics

Cirina of Hong Kong will merge with GRAIL, an Illumina spinout with $1 billion in venture capital, combining their early-stage cancer diagnostic capabilities; Shanghai's LYFE Capital closed LYFE Capital Fund II with $420 million for life science investments; the Shenzhen Biological Research Institute signed a MOU potentially worth $440 million with Israeli pharma Zion to develop two drug candidates in China; InventisBio, a Shanghai-US startup, raised $19 million in a Series B round for its portfolio of four small molecule candidates; OBI Pharma of Taiwan  acquired rights to a preclinical cancer drug candidate from San Francisco's Threshold Pharma; Essex Bio-Technology of Guangdong will co-develop a novel biologic therapeutic discovered by Switzerland's AC Immune; Zhengzhou University researchers will start a clinical trial using human embryonic stem to treat Parkinson's disease; Hutchison China MediTech reported its lead drug increased median survival in colorectal cancer patients by 41%; TaiGen Biotech of Taiwan submitted a NDA in China for an IV version of its novel antibiotic for drug-resistant infections; and China has been accepted as a member of the International Council for Harmonization (ICH), which will encourage China to bring its drug regulation inline with world standards. More details.... Stock Symbols: (NSDQ: ILMN) (TWO: 4174) (NSDQ: THLD) (HK: 1061) (NSDQ: ACIU) (AIM/NSDQ: HCM) (TWO: 4157) Share this with colleagues: // //