Up­dat­ed: US puts hold on F-star's takeover by Chi­na’s Sino Bio­pharm, cit­ing na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty risks

F-star Ther­a­peu­tics won’t yet be able to close its deal with its Chi­nese buy­er, af­ter the US gov­ern­ment’s Com­mit­tee on For­eign In­vest­ment in the Unit­ed States pan­el put a hold on the takeover, cit­ing na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty risks.

Chi­na’s Sino Bio­pharm made a $161 mil­lion deal with F-star in June, seek­ing to buy its bis­pe­cif­ic an­ti­body plat­form. The deal was be­ing done via Sino’s in­voX unit, a sub­sidiary meant to help the Hong Kong-based com­pa­ny ex­pand out­side of Chi­na. That deal now ap­pears to be at least tem­porar­i­ly blocked, giv­en the US’ or­der.

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