RemeGen, a low-profile Chinese biotech company based in Yantai city in the coastal Shandong province, around nine hours by train from the bustling biopharma hub of Shanghai, just made history by becoming the largest biotech IPO to date globally in 2020. It is also one of the biggest IPOs of all time after Moderna’s USD 600 million-plus IPO a few years back, raising USD 515 million on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) at the end of October 2020, topping already impressive figures raised by its peers earlier in the year. The IPO came hot on the heels of RemeGen’s private financing round co-led by Lilly Asia Ventures and Lake Bleu Capital, which was held in April and raised approximately USD 100 million.
RemeGen’s IPO documents state that 50 percent would be invested in the clinical development and commercialization of its drug candidates; 25 percent would go towards the construction of a new manufacturing facility; 15 percent would be used to repay the borrowings from RC Pharma; and the final 10 percent will be used for general corporate purposes.
Founded in 2008 by current CEO and CSO Dr Jianmin Fang, the company has dedicated the past 12 years to the development of novel biologics, primarily monoclonal antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates, creating over ten novel drug molecules now in various stages of clinical development. Earlier this year, RemeGen received US FDA Breakthrough Therapy and Fast Track designations for its urothelial cancer asset. Even more excitingly, RemeGen has already filed an NDA in China for systemic lupus erythematosus, which, if approved, would be the first new lupus drug in decades. RemeGen is also working on other autoimmune disease indications, including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, IgA nephropathy, and Sjogren’s syndrome.
Dr Fang received his PhD degree from Dalhousie University in Canada and completed his post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School. In addition to managing RemeGen, he is also a professor at Tongji University in Shanghai.
