Aiming for an IPO, Antengene wants to be China's Celgene

By Wang Fangqing

Chinese biotech start-up Antengene recently hired two former high-profile managers from its funding partner Celgene, now a Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) company. In a recent meeting in Shanghai, where Antengene is based, founder and chief executive Jay Mei spoke with The Pharma Letter about the hires and his vision for his company.

“In the pharma industry, you rarely see a business leader with specific knowledge in multiple myeloma (MM) as well as experiences in developed and emerging markets, but John has both,” Dr Mei said, referring to John Chin, Antengene’s chief business officer and former general manager at Celgene China. During his 15-year career with Celgene, Mr Chin helped launch and manage many Celgene drugs in the USA, Latin American and China, and one of them is the MM treatment Revlimid (lenalidomide).