2014 was supposed to be a breakout year for China life science IPOs. As the year began, China was all set to resume IPOs after a 15-month moratorium, with a new regulatory system and significant pent-up demand. But, for the most part, the renaissance didn't happen (see story). There was one very successful China pharma IPO in Hong Kong — Luye Pharma staged a $764 million initial offering in July — and iKang Healthcare came public in the US while Taicheng Pharma managed to wend its way through the China bureaucracy to list in Shenzhen. But that's a short list. What went wrong? 

Company News

WuXi PharmaTech (NYSE: WX) sent a Christmas greeting that highlights the China CRO/CMO's accomplishments in biologics, including having built the largest biologics development team of any CRO/CMO (see story). Several years ago, WuXi identified biologics as a major focus for growth, allocating much of its considerable annual capex budget on biologics. As Chris Chen, PhD, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of WuXi, pointed out in his Christmas email, WuXi has achieved significant biologics milestones as a result. 

Tianyin Pharma (NYSE: TPI) is discussing an alliance with an unnamed pharmaceutical industry partner to expand its sales reach to all of China (see story). The alliance will build a sales network that serves 10,000 hospitals nationwide, a 10-fold increase from TPI's current network of 1,000 hospitals. It also expects to create more interest in Gingko Mihuan Oral Liquid and the other existing products in TPI's cardiovascular portfolio. Tainyin describes itself as a company that makes patented biopharmaceuticals, modernized TCM products, branded generics and active pharmaceutical ingredients.