Junshi is the latest Chinese company to announce plans to expand into Southeast Asia, where its compatriot firms are also eyeing large market potential and are set to benefit from less stringent reviews of China-only clinical data due to fewer questions around ethnic differences versus the US.

Private Company Edition: Sironax completed a $200m series B round while IDRx launched with $122m and OriCell raised $120m in series C funds, joining end-of-July $100m-plus fundraiser Carmot Therapeutics, which closed a $160m series D financing. 

Cidara gets $30m up front for US rights to the weekly echinocandin candidate for candidemia and invasive candidiasis. Takeda walks away from oncolytic virus candidate licensed from Turnstone.

Out of the more than 40 approvals granted to new drugs in China in 2021, domestic companies bagged around half to catch up with their multinational peers in the annual innovation scorecard.