China and Hong Kong should relax biotech listing rules, venture capitalist says
Foreign investors are returning to China’s healthcare sector, but IPO bottlenecks and takeover rules could deter deals, VC Nisa Leung says
Mainland China and Hong Kong should ease listing rules for biotechnology companies and lower takeover thresholds for listed firms to capitalise on renewed foreign interest in the healthcare sector, venture capitalist Nisa Leung said.
“Besides artificial intelligence, Premier Li Qiang also highlighted biomedicine in the ‘two sessions’ annual government work report,” said Leung, a managing partner at Aulis Capital.
“We are paying attention to medical insurance and commercial insurance, but at the same time we are also looking at how biopharmaceutical companies can expand overseas,” said Leung.
“Hong Kong has also become a very important [capital] centre for AI and healthcare,” she added, citing the successful listing of Insilico Medicine last year in Hong Kong, which she described as a milestone for the sector.
The AI-driven drug discovery company raised HK$2.28 billion (US$290 million) in the share sale. However, she noted that regulatory bottlenecks were slowing the pipeline of new listings.
“Many are stuck in the approval process at the China Securities Regulatory Commission [CSRC],” she said.