Even as some of the pub­lic biotech com­pa­nies in its port­fo­lio bend un­der the weight of a bear mar­ket, Qim­ing Ven­ture Part­ners USA is rolling up its sleeves to build more star­tups.

The VC firm has tak­en the wraps off a $260 mil­lion third fund, dubbed US Health­care Fund III, to ex­e­cute on the same strat­e­gy as pre­vi­ous funds: in­vest in ear­ly-stage ther­a­peu­tics and health­care tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies in the US and the EU.

The tight-knit team — spread among San Fran­cis­co, Seat­tle and Boston — is al­so bring­ing on a new part­ner. Isaac Ciechanover, a one-time biotech en­tre­pre­neur who’s held sev­er­al ven­ture cap­i­tal gigs, will join Gary Ri­eschel, Mark Mc­Dade, An­na French and Col­in Walsh as a part­ner.

Found­ed in 2017, Qim­ing US re­mains an af­fil­i­ate of Shang­hai-based Qim­ing Ven­ture Part­ners, one of Chi­na’s ear­li­est and most promi­nent biotech VC shops.

Both new and ex­ist­ing in­vestors poured mon­ey in­to the new US fund, the firm added.

“We are in­cred­i­bly proud of the en­tre­pre­neurs and health­care in­no­va­tions we have sup­port­ed in just a few short years, and we are grate­ful for the con­tin­ued sup­port of our lim­it­ed part­ners that make this pos­si­ble,” said French in a state­ment.

Qim­ing US counts 16 ther­a­peu­tics de­vel­op­ers in its port­fo­lio, sev­en of which have gone pub­lic. Two oth­ers have been ac­quired — Ar­mo by Eli Lil­ly ($1.6 bil­lion) and Ca­dent by No­var­tis ($210 mil­lion up­front).

Amid a biotech win­ter on Nas­daq, all the pub­lic com­pa­nies, from Kezar Life Sci­ences and Jasper Ther­a­peu­tics to Hill­e­Vax and Icosavax, are now trad­ing be­low their IPO price — with the ex­cep­tion of Ven­tyx Bio­sciences.

But that’s clear­ly not de­ter­ring Qim­ing. In fact, it co-led a $75 mil­lion Se­ries A for oligonu­cleotide spe­cial­ist Cep­tur ear­li­er this year and chipped in to Nes­san Berming­ham’s Se­ries B for Ko­r­ro Bio, which came in at $116 mil­lion.

For his part, Ciechanover said he’s ready to be build­ing com­pa­nies again.

A Cel­gene BD vet, Ciechanover was a part­ner at Klein­er Perkins Cau­field & By­ers when he de­cid­ed to start the cell ther­a­py start­up Atara. But he made a sur­prise de­par­ture in 2019 and has been work­ing with Po­laris be­fore com­ing to Qim­ing.

Ireland has been on a roll in 2022, with several large pharma companies announcing multimillion-euro projects. Now AstraZeneca’s rare disease outfit Alexion is looking to get in on the action.

Alexion on Friday announced a €65 million ($68.8 million) investment in new and enhanced capabilities across two sites in the country, including at College Park in the Dublin suburb of Blanchardstown and the Monksland Industrial Park in the central Irish town of Athlone, according to the Industrial Development Agency of Ireland.

Amidst recently broader vaccine manufacturing initiatives from the EU and European companies, the G7 summit in the mountains of Bavaria has brought about some positive news for closing vaccine and medical product manufacturing gaps around the globe.

According to a statement from the White House, the G7 leaders have formally launched the partnership for global infrastructure, PGII. The effort will aim to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars to deliver infrastructure projects in several sectors including the medical and pharmaceutical manufacturing space.

Another biotech standing on shaky financial legs has fallen victim to the bears.

Merck partner 4D Pharma has reported that a key lender, Oxford Finance, shoved the UK company into administration after calling in a $14 million loan they couldn’t immediately make good on. Trading in their stock was halted with a market cap that had fallen to a mere £30 million.

“Despite the very difficult prevailing market conditions,” 4D reported on Friday, the biotech had been making progress on finding some new financing and turned to Oxford with an alternative late on Thursday and then again Friday morning.

Some Celgene shareholders aren’t happy with how Bristol Myers Squibb’s takeover went down.

On Friday, a New York federal judge ruled that they have a case against the pharma giant, denying a request to dismiss allegations that it purposely slow-rolled Breyanzi’s approval to avoid paying out $6.4 billion in contingent value rights (CVR).

When Bristol Myers put down $74 billion to scoop up Celgene back in 2019, liso-cel — the CAR-T lymphoma treatment now marketed as Breyanzi — was supposedly one of the centerpieces of the deal. After going back and forth on negotiations for about six months, BMS put $6.4 billion into a CVR agreement that required an FDA approval for Zeposia, Breyanzi and Abecma, each by an established date.