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Rapha Capital Management Announces Successful Initial Public Offering of Portfolio Company NexImmune Inc.

On February 24, 2021 Rapha Capital Management, LLC (View Source), an investment management firm located in Miami, Florida, reported that on February 17, 2021, its portfolio company, NexImmune, Inc. ("NexImmune"), closed an upsized initial public offering raising gross proceeds, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses, of approximately $126.5 million (Press release, Ponce Therapeutics, FEB 24, 2021, View Source;utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rapha-capital-management-announces-successful-initial-public-offering-of-portfolio-company-neximmune-inc [SID1234578720]). The gross proceeds included the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase additional shares. NexImmune’s shares are traded on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol "NEXI". Rapha Capital Investment II, LLC ("RCI II") (an entity managed by Rapha Capital), participated in NexImmune’s Series A financing in July, 2018 and Series A-2 financing in January, 2019, investing a total of $1.8 million.

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Rapha Capital Management is an investment management firm focused on managing strategic investments in early stage, non-public biotechnology companies, through special purpose investment vehicles ("SPIVs"). Rapha Capital was founded by its President, Kevin Slawin, M.D., a successful and experienced oncologic and robotic surgeon. After leaving practice, Dr. Slawin has been serving as a biotech consultant, investor, and founder, focusing on disruptive technologies in oncology, T cells and immunotherapy, and other breakthrough healthcare technologies. He is the founder of Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Bellicum"), a publicly traded company listed on NASDAQ, leading Bellicum to a successful $161 million IPO in December, 2014. He also plays a guiding role in several of the investments managed by Rapha Capital in certain companies, serving as a board member at 3DBio Therapeutics, Inc. (View Source), FIZE Medical, Inc. (www.fizemedical.com), and Demeetra AgBio, Inc. (www.demeetra.com). He served as a board member and interim CEO of portfolio company AsclepiX Therapeutics, Inc. (www.asclepix.com) in 2020, engineering their $35 million Series A financing led by Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund in mid 2020. Rapha Capital Management manages thirteen legacy SPIVs, Rapha Capital Investment I – XIII. Rapha Capital Management will be offering alternative asset management services to its inaugural venture capital fund, launching at the end of 1Q21, which will be the vehicle for all future investments managed by Rapha Capital Management.

"We recognized the transformative potential of immunotherapy early on, founding Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, one of the first cellular immunotherapy companies in 2004, and have been an expert in identifying other potentially disruptive technologies, since 2017, when Rapha Capital Management was founded," commented Kevin Slawin, MD. "RCI II’s investment in NexImmune is another example of our commitment to use our unique abilities to identify at the earliest stage, those companies that we believe will go on to profoundly improve peoples’ lives while building great value, from a sea of seemingly indistinguishable, less compelling, opportunities," he added.

Cerus Corporation and Shandong Zhongbaokang Medical Implements Partner to Establish Joint Venture in China

On February 24, 2021 Cerus Corporation (Nasdaq: CERS) and Shandong Zhongbaokang Medical Implements Co. Ltd. (ZBK) reported that they are forming a joint venture (JV) with the intent to develop, obtain regulatory approval for, manufacture and commercialize the INTERCEPT Blood System for platelets and red blood cells in China (Press release, Cerus, FEB 24, 2021, View Source [SID1234575789]). The JV, which will be named "Cerus ZBK Biomedical" (CEZB), will be headquartered in Zibo, Shandong Province in eastern China.

"We are honored to join forces with ZBK in China, furthering our mission to make INTERCEPT the standard of care for patients globally," said Pascal Maillard, Cerus’ vice president of commercial operations for the Asia Pacific region. "We believe that ZBK’s experience with local clinical and regulatory requirements, ISO-certified manufacturing infrastructure, and existing sales channels will facilitate accelerated and broad access to INTERCEPT across China’s transfusion medicine community."

China represents one of the largest potential blood transfusion markets globally for INTERCEPT, with red blood cell collections in excess of 23 million unit-equivalents each year, and an estimated production of 1.8 million platelet doses per year. The healthcare system in China continues to grow at a rapid pace, enabling expanded access to blood components expected to benefit from pathogen inactivation.

"We are delighted to collaborate with Cerus to work to bring INTERCEPT to China as the market for platelets continues to grow rapidly," said Mr. Xu Junfeng, chief executive officer of ZBK. "INTERCEPT-treated platelets would address an unmet clinical need in the blood transfusion market in China and would offer an important new, prospective measure of safety against known and emerging pathogens during this new era of pandemic preparedness planning."

ZBK is a subsidiary of the Taibao Group and a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of blood transfusion, blood safety, and infusion products in China. ZBK markets and sells its products through its own sales force network to over 280 blood centers nationwide.

Under the terms of the JV agreement, Cerus and ZBK are the sole shareholders in CEZB, with Cerus owning a majority (51%) of the entity. Cerus anticipates that it will consolidate the results of CEZB in its consolidated financial statements. Additionally, Cerus will contribute an exclusive license to the INTERCEPT Blood System for platelets and red blood cells for CEZB to market across China. ZBK will contribute its significant local expertise to help perform necessary clinical studies and seek regulatory approval. Ultimately it is expected that ZBK will establish local manufacturing and leverage its commercial expertise and presence in the region.

ERYTECH TO PARTICIPATE IN UPCOMING VIRTUAL INVESTOR CONFERENCES IN MARCH

On February 24, 2021 ERYTECH Pharma (Nasdaq & Euronext: ERYP), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies by encapsulating therapeutic drug substances inside red blood cells, reported that Chief Executive Officer, Gil Beyen, will present at the following conferences in the month of March and participate in select one-on-one investor meetings alongside members of the senior management (Press release, ERYtech Pharma, FEB 24, 2021, View Source [SID1234575739]).

Cowen and Company – 41st Annual Health Care Conference – March 1-4, 2021

Gil Beyen, Chief Executive Officer, will participate in the GI Oncology and Pancreatic Cancer Panel Discussion on March 2, 2021 at 9:50am ET and management will conduct one-on-one meetings with investors during the conference.

The GI Oncology and Pancrearic Cancer Panel will stream live and a replay will be available on Cowen’s Conference Site: View Source

H.C. Wainwright – Global Life Sciences Conference, March 9-10, 2021

A pre-recorded corporate presentation will be accessible to conference attendees starting on Tuesday, March 9th 2021 at 7am ET to 90 days after the event. Management will conduct one-on-one meetings with investors during the conference.

A link to the HCW webcast will be accessible via ERYTECH’s website at View Source

If you are interested in arranging a one-on-one meeting request please contact your bank conference representative or contact Corey Davis at LifeSciAdvisors.

YishengBio Raises $130 Million in Series B Funding to Accelerate Pipeline Development and Commercialization

On February 24, 2021 YishengBio Co., Ltd. ("YishengBio", the "Company") reported the closing of a US$130 million in Series B funding round (Press release, Yisheng Biopharma, FEB 24, 2021, View Source [SID1234575622]). The new investment was co-led by Oceanpine and OrbiMed. After completing the Series B funding round, the company’s institutional investors include: OrbiMed, Oceanpine, EightRoad, F-Prime Capital, 3W Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Adjuvant Capital, MSA Capital, AIHC, Epiphron Capital, Superstring Capital, Haitong International, etc. This round of funding will strongly support the expansion of the company’s R&D center, accelerate our commercialization strategies including the clinical development of multiple vaccine candidates and the construction of biologics production facilities in China and Singapore. CEC Capital was the company’s exclusive financial advisor in Series B funding round. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Tian Yuan Law Firm acted as the international legal counsel and legal counsel in China of YishengBio respectively. Sidley Austin LLP acted as the legal counsel of OrbiMed and Adjuvant Capital. Han Kun Law Offices acted as the legal counsel of Oceanpine Capital.

YishengBio is a global, fully integrated biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Beijing. The company is engaged in discovering, developing and commercializing innovative biotherapeutics for cancers and infectious diseases using novel PIKA immunomodulating technology. YishengBio operates in China, USA, and Singapore with over 500 employees. YishengBio’s YSJA rabies vaccine is the first alum-free lyophilized rabies vaccine launched in China. The rabies vaccine has been commercialized in China and has served over 16 million patients for post-exposure protection against rabies. The novel PIKA immunomodulating technology platform is a new immunomodulation technology developed by YishengBio. Its proprietary PIKA technology augments both innate and adaptive immune responses through the TLR3, RIG-I and MDA5 pathways. With the PIKA immunomodulating technology platform, YishengBio has developed a series of new immune drugs and innovative vaccine products and has obtained over 60 patents for its PIKA immunomodulating technology across more than 30 countries and regions. Being able to accelerate post-exposure immune protection, PIKA rabies vaccine has the potential to lead in the rabies vaccines market in the future. The product has been cited as a novel vaccine by the World Health Organization and classified as a therapeutic biologics product by the China National Medical Products Administration. The product is planned to enter into its global multi-center Phase III clinical trial. Other products in clinical development include YS-ON-001 for the treatment of advanced solid tumors, YS-HBV-001 for hepatitis B and PIKA YS-SC2-010, a prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine candidate against Covid-19 virus. PIKA YS-HBV-002 for chronic HBV and PIKA YS-ON-002 for solid tumor, among others, are product candidates in preclinical and discovery stages.

"We are very pleased to have the support of healthcare investors in the Series B investment," said David Shao, CEO of YishengBio. "We believe their investments in YishengBio reflects the confidence in our development of novel PIKA immunomodulating technology, the revenue potential of YSJA rabies vaccine, and the market prospectus of our innovative vaccine pipeline. This new round of capital will accelerate the building of our management and R&D teams and will facilitate the growth of our pipeline and construction of production sites both at home and abroad. YishengBio is committed to providing more innovative, safer and more effective vaccines and biologics for doctors and patients all over the world."

Dave Chenn, CEO and Managing Partner of Oceanpine Capital, the lead investor on YishengBio’s series B investment, said, "The COVID-19 epidemic has triggered abrupt development in vaccine research around the globe, which has been a focus of our investment in healthcare sector. Specializing in the development of innovative vaccines and therapeutic biologics for infectious diseases and cancer, YishengBio boasts a management team of comprehensive and complementary capabilities in the vaccine industry and commercialization. The YSJA rabies vaccine is well received by the market as a quality product and the in-house developed competitive PIKA technology has been applied to the development of a new generation of antiviral vaccines. We are optimistic about the future of YishengBio. Oceanpine is very excited to be the lead investor in the Series B investment to grow and thrive with the company and partners, and to help accelerate YishengBio in becoming a world-leading biopharmaceutical company."

Iris Wang, Managing Director of Orbimed Asia-Pacific, said, "Chinese biotech companies are playing an increasingly significant role in the innovation era of the whole world. As an existing shareholder of YishengBio, we are very glad to support the company’s strategy in developing and commercializing innovative vaccines and therapeutic biologics once again and are very confident in the execution capability of the management team."

Xiao Zhang, Managing Director of CEC Capital, said, "We are delighted to support YishengBio’s seried B investment. Vaccines and healthcare sectors have long been the focus of global investment and YishengBio is well-sought after company in innovative vaccines and biologics. We recognized the talented management team and strong capability. We look forward to seeing new milestones by YishengBio after this investment."

ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Announces Private Placement of Ordinary Shares

On February 24, 2021, ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited (the "Company") reported that entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement (the "Purchase Agreement") with the purchasers named therein (the "Purchasers"), pursuant to which the Company agreed to sell to the Purchasers, in an unregistered offering, an aggregate of 25,568,180 Ordinary Shares, nominal value $0.01 per share ("Ordinary Shares") at a purchase price of $0.704 per share (the "Purchase Price"), which represents the closing sale price of the Company’s American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") on the Nasdaq Global Market on February 24, 2021 of $3.52 per ADS divided by five (the "Private Placement") (Press release, ASLAN Pharmaceuticals, FEB 24, 2021, View Source [SID1234575595]). Each ADS represents five Ordinary Shares. The Private Placement is expected to close on or about February 25, 2021 (the "Closing"), subject to customary closing conditions.

The Private Placement is expected to result in gross proceeds to the Company of approximately $18 million before deducting offering expenses.

The Company has agreed to file a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission within 30 days after the Closing to register the Ordinary Shares, which will be represented by ADSs (collectively, the "Securities").

The Company has also agreed, among other things, to indemnify the Purchasers, their partners, members, officers and directors, and each person who controls such Purchasers, from certain liabilities and to pay certain expenses incurred by the Company in connection with the registration of the Securities.

The Private Placement is exempt from registration pursuant to Section 4(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended as a transaction by an issuer not involving a public offering. The Purchasers have agreed to acquire the Ordinary Shares for investment only and not with a view to or for sale in connection with any distribution thereof.