On Wednesday 31 October, two portfolio companies in the Eight Roads/ F-Prime platform listed on opposite sides of the globe.

Suzhou-based Innovent Biologics raised HK$3.3bn after floating on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, marking the largest Hong Kong biotech IPO this year. As founding investors, Eight Roads Ventures and F-Prime funded the company in 2011 to develop and manufacture high-quality second-generation biologics for China and other emerging markets. Innovent signed a strategic partnership with US pharma group Eli Lilly in 2015 for licensing, co-development and co-branding in China for Sintilimab and another core product IBI-301.

Since then, Innovent has built a pipeline of 17 antibody drug candidates, led by four core products in late-stage clinical development. Its core product cancer drug Sintilimab (IBI-308) is a fully human PD-1 monoclonal antibody (mAb). It is one of the first PD-1 mAbs to have a new drug application accepted in China with priority review status. The product is expected to launch in 2019.

London-based Orchard Therapeutics began trading on Wednesday, on the NASDAQ. Orchard Therapeutics is a fully integrated commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to transforming the lives of patients with serious and life-threatening rare diseases through innovative gene therapies. Orchard’s advanced portfolio of autologous ex vivo gene therapies targets serious and life-threatening rare diseases, initially primary immune deficiencies, neurometabolic disorders and hemoglobinopathies.

Orchard was formed by F-Prime in December 2015 and the F-Prime team has continued to work extremely closely with the company through multiple funding rounds and rapid operational development.

A huge congratulations to both companies on reaching this milestone!

Read more here.