Zai Lab hauls in $761M from Hong Kong IPO to push Zejula, more budding candidates in China — report
Zai Lab is set to net more than $761 million from its secondary listing in Hong Kong after pricing the IPO at $72.51 (HKD$562) — just a hair below its Nasdaq closing price on Monday, Bloomberg and Nikkei Asian Review reported.

A pioneer in bringing Western drugs to China, co-founder and CEO Samantha Du has more than tripled Zai Lab’s market cap in the three years it’s been public in the US. The HKEX listing is designed to fund R&D and commercialization for the current portfolio while fueling new in-licensing pacts, the biotech wrote in a filing.
The 12 candidates come from GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol Myers Squibb, Paratek, Five Prime, Entasis, Novocure, MacroGenics, Deciphera, Incyte, Regeneron and Turning Point. While the deals mostly cover mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, in some cases Zai Lab is also grabbing rights in Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and other countries in the Asia Pacific region.
Most prominent among them is Zejula, the PARP inhibitor that drew GSK to buy out Tesaro for $5.1 billion. There’s also one other commercial product in Optune, a device approved to treat glioblastoma multiforme.
The proceeds will also fund development of two compounds discovered in-house, which target IL-17 for psoriasis and CD47 for cancer respectively.
Given the requirement that investors buy 50 shares, it has one of the highest thresholds for a new stock, local media noted. The total price was cited as a reason why Zai Lab was only slightly oversubscribed.