Ascletis Pharma, a China-based liver disease therapy developer backed by pharmaceutical firm Tasly Pharmaceuticals, has filed for an initial public offering in Hong Kong.
The company has redacted figures concerning its funding targets and share pricing from the filing, but the document revealed that its investors paid $36 per share in its $100m series B round, offering some insight into a potential price for the IPO.
Ascletis Pharma is developing treatments for liver diseases, working on both its own internal pipeline and therapies licensed from healthcare companies in western countries.
The company’s licensed treatments include hepatitis C drugs from pharmaceutical firms Roche and Presidio Pharmaceuticals. Ascletis will use the IPO proceeds to achieve regulatory approval for those therapies.
Ascletis is the first company to seek a flotation in Hong Kong following the exchange’s relaxed rules on biotechnology developers, which enable them to float before they are profitable and issue dual-class shares.
Healthcare investment fund C-Bridge Capital is the only external backer listed in the filing as owning a substantial number of shares, though precise figures have been redacted.
Tasly contributed to the aforementioned $100m series B round, which was led by C-Bridge Capital. The round also featured outdoor advertising firm Focus Media’s Jiangnanchun Foundation, QianHai Equity Investment FOF, WTT Investment and Goldman Sachs.
Ascletis secured $55m in a 2015 series A round raised over two tranches. The initial $35m tranche was co-led by Tasly, C-Bridge and the Singaporean state-owned Pavilion Capital in September, before Tasly and Goldman Sachs supplied an additional $20m in December.
Morgan Stanley Asia, Goldman Sachs (Asia) and China Merchants Securities (HK) have been appointed as underwriters for the offering.