As­cle­tis breaks in­to HKEX, briefly ris­ing on hot­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed pub­lic de­but of first biotech

So how did Hong Kong’s first biotech do on its first day of pub­lic trad­ing?

Ob­servers wast­ed no time not­ing that As­cle­tis Phar­ma — al­lowed on­to the HKEX un­der new rules open­ing the door to pre-rev­enue biotechs — briefly rose from HK$14 to HK$14.9, gain­ing a 6.4% in­crease in morn­ing trad­ing be­fore re­treat­ing to the list­ing price.

What that says about the mar­ket is up for dis­cus­sion, but it’s cer­tain that we have of­fi­cial­ly en­tered an era where boom­ing Chi­nese biotechs — es­pe­cial­ly those with glob­al am­bi­tions, an ever grow­ing group — can tap a fundrais­ing chan­nel much clos­er to home than the Nas­daq.

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