Ascletis first to apply for HKEX biotech chapter

Ascletis Pharma Inc. (Hangzhou, China) plans to list on Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. (HKEX) in an IPO underwritten by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and China Merchants Securities, according to a regulatory filing.

The company is the first for which an IPO application has been filed on HKEX’s new pre-revenue biotech chapter. To list on the exchange, such companies are required to have a market cap of at least HK$1.5 billion ($191.1 million) and working capital to cover at least 125% of costs for at least the next 12 months and have completed Phase I testing of a drug candidate in humans with no regulatory objection to start Phase II or later testing (see BioCentury Extra, April 30)...