An­oth­er IPO fren­zy? Two US biotechs head to Hong Kong for a pub­lic mar­ket de­but

Two US-based biotechs, Stealth Bio­Ther­a­peu­tics and AO­Bio­me, have joined the queue to ap­ply for an IPO in Hong Kong — a first since the city’s ex­change changed its rules late April to at­tract pre-rev­enue drug­mak­ers.

While nei­ther com­pa­nies cur­rent­ly have op­er­a­tions in Chi­na, both ex­pressed a keen in­ter­est in cap­i­tal­iz­ing on the mar­ket there, with Stealth ready to set up R&D shop in Shang­hai. The much-watched de­vel­op­ment — an­a­lysts have long pre­dict­ed a string of US biotech uni­corns go­ing for a gold-rush to main­tain their high val­u­a­tions — came on the heels of two IPO ap­pli­ca­tions by Chi­na-based com­pa­nies, In­novent and Mi­cuRx.

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