SHANGHAI, June 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Chinese biologic drug developer SinocellTech, Qiming’s portfolio company, today lands on the Science and Technology Innovation Board (the STAR Market). The issue price of SinocellTech (SHSE: 688520) is CNY 25.64 per share. The stock opens at CNY 85 per share with a market cap of CNY 37 billion.

The listing of SinocellTech marks Qiming’s third exit on the STAR Market in 2020, following the listing of RoboRock (SHSE:688169) in Feburary and Sanyou Medical (SHSE:688085) in April. Qiming Venture Partners led the Series A round of SinocellTech in 2017.

“We are pleased to see another of our portfolio companies going public on the STAR Market. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to have invested in good companies in the healthcare and TMT sectors at an early stage,” said Nisa Leung, Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners. “SinocellTech has multiple products in the pipeline that have entered Phase III clinical trial. It will not be long before Me-Better or Best-in-Class innovative biopharmaceutical drugs be available in the market to cater for unmet medical needs.”

Founded in 2007, SinocellTech focuses on the development and manufacturing of biopharmaceutical drugs, including monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins and vaccines. The firm is an innovative biotech dedicated to the development of biologics with distinct advantages.

After more than a decade of effort, SinocellTech has established a high-efficiency, high-throughput technology platform covering the entire chain of biologic R&D and production, and has developed diversified and distinguished monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins and vaccines among other biologic pipelines.

As of May 15, 2020, SinocellTech has 23 products in the pipeline, among which 21 are innovative drugs, and two are biosimilar drugs. The market approval applications of two products have been accepted; six products have been approved for clinical research; six products have entered the pre-clinical research stage, and nine products have entered the phase of drugability evaluation.

SinocellTech has multiple targeted drugs at the stage of discovery. All products are independently developed by the company and have commercial rights worldwide. SinocellTech has reserved a rich pipeline of early-stage drug candidates covering multiple categories, including recombinant proteins, monoclonal antibodies, and cell therapy, which will enable the continuous launch of products for pre-clinical and clinical research.

“China’s innovative drug industry will likely boom as the country has introduced multiple new drug review policies. The structural adjustment of drug use and the support from the capital market also accelerated the trend,” said Amy Tang, Venture Partner of Qiming Venture Partners. “Under the leadership of founder Dr. Xie Liangzhi and the management team, SinocellTech has made tremendous efforts in strengthening the technology platform and expanding pipeline since its founding. We believe that with its technical advantages and hard work, SinocellTech will become an innovative pharmaceutical company of high potential.”

According to the forecast of Frost & Sullivan, a consulting firm, the biopharmaceuticals market where SinocellTech is at is proliferating. The global biopharmaceutical market is expected to increase from US$261.8 billion in 2018 to US$402.1 billion in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate close to 9.0%. With the economic growth and the rising prevalence of chronic diseases in China, the Chinese biopharmaceutical market will increase from 262.2 billion yuan in 2018 to 641.2 billion yuan in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate close to 19.6%.

About Qiming Venture Partners

Founded in 2006, Qiming Venture Partners is a leading China venture capital firm with offices in Shanghai, Beijing, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Seattle, Boston and San Francisco Bay Area.

Currently Qiming Venture Partners manages nine US Dollar funds and five RMB funds with $5.3 billion assets under management. Since our establishment, we have invested in outstanding companies in the TMT and healthcare industries at the early and growing stages.

Since our debut, we have backed over 350 fast-growing and innovative companies. Over 110 companies are already listed on NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEx, Gretai Securities Market, Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or achieved exit through M&A and other means. There are also over 30 portfolio companies that have achieved unicorn status.

Many of our portfolio companies are today’s most influential firms in their respective sectors, including Xiaomi (SEHK:1810), Meituan Dianping (SEHK:3690), Bilibili (NASDAQ:BILI), Roborock (SHSE:688169), Tigermed (SZSE:300347), Zai Lab (NASDAQ:ZLAB), Venus MedTech (SEHK:2500), CanSino (SEHK:6185), Schrödinger (NASDAQ:SDGR), Sanyou Medical (SHSE:688085), AmoyDx (SZSE:300685), Berry Genomics (SZSE:000710), WeDoctor Group, UBTech among many others.

Hackers linked to the Chinese government are trying to steal coronavirus-related research on vaccines, treatments and testing, the FBI and a U.S. cybersecurity agency warned Wednesday.

The FBI, in a joint statement with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said it is investigating “the targeting and compromise of U.S. organizations conducting COVID-19-related research by [People’s Republic of China]-affiliated cyber actors and non-traditional collectors.”

The hackers have been caught attempting to “identify and illicitly obtain valuable intellectual property” and public health data related to coronavirus research, according to the statement.

“The potential theft of this information jeopardizes the delivery of secure, effective, and efficient treatment options,” the statement read.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, is a division of the Homeland Security Department.

The federal agencies urged all U.S. organizations researching the virus to beef up their cybersecurity practices to “prevent surreptitious review or theft of COVID-19-related material.”

The coronavirus originated near the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei province and has since grown to a global pandemic that has hit the U.S. harder than any other country, according to data on confirmed Covid-19 cases and deaths. More than 1.3 million cases and at least 82,389 deaths have so far been counted in the U.S., data from Johns Hopkins University shows.

U.S. political leaders and health experts have said that the world may not be relieved of the disease’s massive impact on daily life, which has brought the United States economy to a virtual standstill, until an effective vaccine is made widely available.

But even if a vaccine is developed at a breakneck pace, it could still be at least a year to 18 months away.

“Biomedical research has long been at the heart of something the Chinese have wanted and something they have engaged in economic espionage to get,” John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, told CNBC on Monday.

“It would be crazy to think that right now, the Chinese were not behind some of the cyberactivity we’re seeing targeting U.S. pharmaceutical companies and targeting research institutes around the country that are doing coronavirus research, treatments and vaccines,” Demers said on “The Exchange.”

The unfolding health crisis caused by the coronavirus is the latest issue to rattle relations between Beijing and Washington. The world’s two largest economies were already engaged in a disruptive trade war with intellectual property theft proving to be a major sticking point between the two nations.

U.S. officials have long complained that Chinese intellectual property theft has cost the economy billions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs and that it threatens national security. China maintains that it does not engage in intellectual property theft.

The F-35, the crown jewel in the defense giant Lockheed Martin’s portfolio, had its sensitive design and electronics data compromised in 2009. Chinese hackers were believed to be behind the cyber-intrusion.

China later announced it was developing its own fifth-generation fighter, the stealth Shenyang J-31 jet, which bears a striking resemblance to the F-35.

The Trump administration is also working to isolate Chinese tech firm Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, from developing a larger foothold in U.S. partner countries.

China’s actions have received bipartisan criticism: Earlier this year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-calif., took a hard stand against doing business with Huawei, and warned other nations not to deal with the company.

After years of negotiations, the Trump administration and the Chinese government in January signed the first phase of a trade agreement. But President Donald Trump has in recent weeks blamed China for the virus and sharply criticized its handling of the outbreak.

“It could have been stopped right where it came from,” Trump said in March.

On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted, “We just made a great Trade Deal, the ink was barely dry, and the World was hit by the Plague from China.”

“100 Trade Deals wouldn’t make up the difference – and all those innocent lives lost!” Trump wrote.

As I have said for a long time, dealing with China is a very expensive thing to do. We just made a great Trade Deal, the ink was barely dry, and the World was hit by the Plague from China. 100 Trade Deals wouldn’t make up the difference – and all those innocent lives lost!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2020

Reporting by Kevin Breuninger, Kevin Stankiewicz and Amanda Macias @ CNBC

— CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed to this report.