Tout­ing pro­grams from No­var­tis, Laek­na bags $100M in Hong Kong IPO while Mer­ck-part­nered Kelun seeks up to $208M

A pair of Chi­nese biotechs with Big Phar­ma ties is bring­ing some fresh IPO ac­tiv­i­ty to the biotech cor­ner of Hong Kong’s stock ex­change af­ter a lull.

Shang­hai-based Laek­na has raised just over $100 mil­lion to de­vel­op its can­cer and fi­bro­sis drugs, in­clud­ing two lead can­di­dates li­censed from No­var­tis, while Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Bio­phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal — whose an­ti­body-drug con­ju­gate plat­form has drawn Mer­ck to sev­er­al deals that can add up to $12 bil­lion — is seek­ing as much as $208 mil­lion from its pub­lic list­ing.

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