China's BeiGene to splurge on R&D after IPO

After raising more than $150 million from the initial public offering on the Nasdaq in February, Chinese life sciences biotechnology company BeiGene is comfortable to increase its pipeline spend, said BeiGene chief financial officer Howard Liang.

“We will invest in our research projects, primarily the candidates that are already in clinical studies,” Dr Liang told The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent Wang Fangqing.

BeiGene has four candidates in Phase I and Phase II studies. Among them, BGB3111 recently received investigational new drug approval from China’s Food and Drug Administration. A highly selective molecule inhibitor of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) to treat lymphomas, BGB3111 also got IND approval from the US FDA and the European Medicines Agency. It is in Phase I studies in Australia.