The latest news from Chinese pharma, including an overhaul of the country’s patent law; a BioNTech-Fosun tie-up on COVID-19 vaccines; and big R&D subsidies for local companies available in Shanghai.
How Hong Kong can cement its position as a biotech listing hub (SCMP)
To maintain its growth and quality, Hong Kong’s biotech sector needs more bankers, analysts and lawyers with international expertise.
Given the short history of the sector and the technical nature of biotech finance skills, the pool of home-grown talent is small, though growing.
China overhauls patent law to stay competitive in biotech innovation (BioWorld)
To honor its part for phase one of the U.S.-China trade deal, China has revised its patent law to establish a drug patent linkage system and provide compensation for lost patent terms, similar to procedures under the U.S. Hatch-Waxman Act. Effective June 1, the new patent law is expected to drive biotech innovation and welcome more foreign drugs to the China market.
BioNTech, Fosun Pharma eye 1B doses of COVID-19 vaccine capacity with new China JV (Fierce Pharma)
As BioNTech makes inroads with its COVID-19 vaccine in Western countries under a partnership with Pfizer, the German biotech is bringing its work in China to the next level as the shot nears a local approval.
BioNTech and Fosun Pharma are setting up a 50-50 joint venture to make and sell the COVID mRNA shot in China, with manufacturing capacity to produce up to 1 billion doses a year, Fosun said in a filing to the Hong Kong Exchange on Sunday.
Taiwan needs vaccines. Beijing has offered them. The problem? Politics as usual (Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2021/05/25/taiwan-covid-cases-vaccine-china-beijing-offer/
Taiwan’s COVID response had been exemplar. For almost all 18 months of the pandemic, the island remained relatively free of COVID-19, thanks to intensive contact tracing, near universal mask wearing, and a centralized epidemic command center. But now cracks in that response—loose quarantine rules for airline personnel are partly to blame—have set off the island’s first real COVID wave and revealed another shortcoming: Taiwan’s slow administration of COVID-19 vaccines.
Shanghai plans big R&D subsidies for local biopharma and med-tech companies (BioWorld)
For the next three years, the government of Shanghai will hand out R&D subsidies up to ¥100 million ($15.6 million) per year to each biopharma company in the municipality to support innovative medicines. Med-tech players can also each receive up to ¥15 million a year for developing innovative devices.
