Nov. 15 Quick Takes: $500M first close of CBC’s biotech facilities venture

China-based investment firm CBC Group and Dutch pension provider APG Asset Management have raised the first $500 million for a life sciences venture that will seek to provide facilities for biopharmas ranging from start-up incubators to multinational corporations. Echoing the model of Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. (NYSE:ARE) in the West, the new CBC China Life Science Infrastructure Venture is seeking to raise more capital, with a hard cap of $1.5 billion; it has already identified locales in Shanghai and Beijing, and aspires to build life science clusters in nine cities in China.

Shares of PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:PHAS) fell $0.68 (18%) to $3.02 after the company disclosed interim data from a Phase III study of bentracimab that left investors skeptical the results would be sufficient for regulatory approval. The antibody met its primary endpoint of reversing the antiplatelet effects of Brilinta ticagrelor from AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NYSE:AZN), with bentracimab leading to 135% reduction in platelet inhibition (p<0.001) within 10 minutes of infusion. The study lacked a control arm, however, and only eight out of the 150 enrolled patients had uncontrolled major or life-threatening bleeding. The company said it remained “on track” to submit a BLA to FDA in mid-2022. ...