Hutchison China MediTech Files for IPO

Hutchison China MediTech has filed an F-1 form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its initial public offering (IPO). No pricing terms were given in this initial filing, but the offering is valued up to $100 million, although this number is usually just a placeholder. The company intends to list its American depositary shares (ADSs) on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol HCM.

The underwriters for the offering are Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Stifel, Canaccord Genuity, Panmure Gordon and CITIC CLSA.

This innovative biopharmaceutical company based in China aims to become a global leader in the discovery, development and commercialization of targeted therapies for oncology and immunological diseases. It has created a broad pipeline of drug candidates. The company has taken a chemistry-focused approach to develop highly selective small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors that are intended to have potentially global best-in-class efficacy and are deliberately engineered to improve drug exposure and reduce known class-related toxicities.

The company believes its current drug candidates, such as savolitinib (targeting c-Met) and HMPL-523 (targeting Syk), have the potential to be global first-in-class therapies, or, as in the cases of fruquintinib (targeting VEGFR1/2/3), sulfatinib (targeting VEGFR/FGFR1), epitinib (targeting EGFRm+ with brain metastasis) and HMPL-689 (targeting PI3Kd), are sufficiently differentiated to potentially be global best-in-class, next generation therapies with a superior profile compared to existing approved drugs that act against the relevant kinase targets. Kinases are a class of proteins and enzymes that function in many signaling pathways and have been shown to drive several key activities of cancer cells, including growth, survival and angiogenesis.

Hutchison China intends to use to net proceeds from this offering to further develop and progress its pipeline, while the remainder will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.

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