F-star's sale to Chi­nese buy­er cleared by CFIUS fol­low­ing months of holdup

Af­ter tak­ing sev­er­al months to re­view F-star’s pro­posed sale to a Chi­nese com­pa­ny, the US gov­ern­ment’s Com­mit­tee on For­eign In­vest­ment in the Unit­ed States (CFIUS) has fi­nal­ly giv­en its bless­ing for the deal.

The clear­ance comes al­most nine months af­ter in­voX Phar­ma, a sub­sidiary of Chi­na’s Sino Bio­pharm, first struck a deal to buy out F-star for $161 mil­lion in cash.

CFIUS is a long­stand­ing group tasked with scru­ti­niz­ing trans­ac­tions in­volv­ing for­eign in­vest­ments in the US and block­ing any deals it deems threat­en­ing. But in re­cent years, the White House has sig­naled that biotech could be a top area for crack­down, trig­ger­ing fears that it would cre­ate road­blocks for Asian in­vestors in­ter­est­ed in US com­pa­nies.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER