HONG KONG – (ACN Newswire) – Innovent Biologics [Innovent; HKG:1801], a China Suzhou-based biopharmaceutical company, completes its initial public offering in Hong Kong, with trading officially commencing today. The company is the largest Biothech company judging from its late stage product pipe lines and its comprehensive functional platform to debut in HK Exchange thus far.
Innovent joins with an array of high-tech biopharma companies to gain exposure to the international capital market thanks to Hong Kong’s new listing rules that are poised to attract high-potential biotech companies from the mainland. Under the volatile market we have been experiencing in the past month, this is one of a very few company still receives strong support from the global long only and reputable investment funds.
Innovent prices its IPO at HK$13.98 per share, raising a total of HKD HK$3,155.3 million via an issuance of 236.35m shares. In addition to getting very strong cornerstone support from well-known investment funds when it launched the IPO book build, sources said they also heavily allocated the remaining shares to high quality well-known global investors.
The company’s listing under such a challenging market affirms investors’ confidence in its future development and the successful commercialization of its rich innovative drugs pipeline under development.
Advanced researches focus on critical diseases
Innovent specializes in the research and development (R&D), production and commercialization of monoclonal antibody drugs that are used to treat tumor and other critical diseases. Its pipeline of 17 new drugs are designed to treat four categories of major illnesses including oncology, ophthalmology, as well as autoimmune and metabolic diseases.
Four of these drugs, PD-1 inhibitors Sintilimab (IBI-308), and biosimilar drugs of Bevacizumab (Avastin) IBI-305, Rituximab (Rituxan) IBI-301 and Adalimumab (Humira) IBI-303 are in phase-3 trials of clinical development, which form the Innovent’s core products that are closest to commercialization.
Two weeks ago, Innovent announced that its IND application for a combination therapy of Sintilimab and IBI305 had been approved by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for clinical development. The company will initiate clinical trials based on this combination to assess its safety and efficacy in patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This was the sixth IND approval this year from NMPA or US FDA for the company.
The Company’s most mature product Sintilimab was among the first domestically produced PD-1 inhibitor that has applied to National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for market approval. NMPA has accelerated the process by granting “priority review” for Sintilimab, which will set the course of full commercialization in the Chinese market in 2019 for the Company.
Sintilimab helps restore cancer patients’ immune systems to attack malignant cells. Whereas IBI-303, 305, and 301 are expected to apply for NDA approval in the last quarter of 2018, first quarter of 2019, and last quarter of 2019 respectively.
The company feels a social obligation to keep an exploring and innovative mind, as its Chairman Dr Yu said: “Innovent will make best use of our strong product pipeline to explore new methods of combination therapy that targets cancer and immune disease treatments. It will strive to make more huge breakthroughs the soonest possible.”
Experient manufacturing and commercialization teams
Innovent achieves seamless cooperation between its R&D, production and sales teams via a comprehensively integrated biomedical platform that effectively monitors risk control in the R&D of new drugs while striving to reduce related expenses.
The platform lays the foundation for the successful development and commercialization of innovative drugs within shortest timeframe possible, which helps cut costs and make the drugs more affordable for patients.
Innovent also houses robust and sophisticated production facilities in Suzhou, covering an arena of 21,579.52 square meters in total to support the production of two of its most advanced products Sintilimab and IBI 303/305.
The company is in the process of building a second-phase production facility to prepare for a growing demand base on the rich pipeline. It expects the facility to start operation in the second half of 2019, which is capable of supporting Innovent’s exponential business growth for the next few years.