Two more Chinese firms jump in on biotech listing fever

Kintor and Frontier are amongst those eyeing floats.

Bloomberg reports that two more Chinese drug developers, Suzhou Kintor Pharmaceuticals and Frontier Biotechnologies, are joining the wave of biotech firms gunning for share sales in Hong Kong after new listing rules opened the door for pre-profit biotech firms. 

Kintor, which develops treatments for cancer and cardiovascular diseases, earlier delisted from China’s National Equities Exchange and Quotation in June. Frontier, on the other hand, is a clinical-stage drug developer that focuses on HIV treatments.

Also read: Goldman, Citi banks abandon posts to cash in on biotech hype

The two companies are said to be planning IPOs that could raise roughly US$300m each, as they join about half a dozen such firms taking advantage of sweeping reforms to Hong Kong’s listing regime which include alloowing biotech firms with no track record of profitability to list in the Main Board. 

A slew of companies from Amazon-backed Grail to Shanghai-based Hua Medicine are already lining up or mulling a local listing, in a win for the Hong Kong bourse which seeks to compete against New York and Nasdaq in global IPO rankings.

Here’s more from Bloomberg: