To date this year, not a single innovative drug-focused biotech has filed for an initial public offering on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Apart from a suspected tightening of listing rules, IPO disclosures and the plummeting share prices of public companies seem to be looming large over bioventures aiming considering floating on the bourse.

Home-grown Chinese mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are more effective than domestic inactivated virus-based shots, new trial results show.

The latest policies from Beijing show that the Chinese government is readying its own new vaccines and drugs for COVID-19 in a bid to gradually ease some of the strictest pandemic restrictions globally, but progress is mixed and domestic reported infections are surging to their highest level since March 2020.

CanSino and Zhifei have received the regulatory green light for their respective COVID-19 booster shots in China and an estimated $1.3bn vaccine market is now up for grabs. Domestic contenders are set to elbow each other in the sector with a range of viral vector, recombinant protein and mRNA-based jabs.