China's Innovent Biologics makes 5 pct gain in Hong Kong debut

By Julia Fioretti

HONG KONG: Innovent Biologics climbed 5 percent in a Hong Kong debut closely watched as a test of investor appetite for Chinese biotechs after three rivals saw their shares slide post-listing.

The Chinese biotech - backed by mutual fund giant Fidelity and Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings - was trading at HK$14.7 on Wednesday morning, above its IPO price of HK$13.98.

It is the fourth listing under new rules in Hong Kong aimed at wooing early-stage drug developers.

Shanghai and Suzhou-based Innovent raised $421 million in its IPO, making it the largest Hong Kong biotech offering this year.

Hong Kong implemented the new rules allowing biotech firms with no revenue or profit to list in the city in April, hoping to woo new-economy firms away from centres such as New York.

Ascletis Pharma, the first biotech company to go public under the new rules, has dropped nearly 60 percent since its shares started trading on Aug.1, while Hua Medicine is down 17 percent since its Sept. 14 debut.

BeiGene Ltd, which also listed on the Nasdaq, has lost 37 percent since debut on Aug. 8. The Hong Kong benchmark has lost 13 percent since August.

Nine other biotechs including Ascentage Pharma and WuXi AppTech Co Ltd have filed for Hong Kong listings but the poor performance of deals so far and wider market jitters have clouded those prospects.

Innovent was founded in 2011 by Michael Yu, who held senior roles at U.S. biotechs including Cell Genesys before returning to China.

It has built a pipeline of 17 antibody drug candidates, led by four core products in late-stage clinical development. Among them are sintilimab, which treats Hodgkin's lymphoma, and IBI-305, a biosimilar to Roche's Avastin, which treats colon, lung and other cancers.