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Biotechs Stage No-Show As China’s STAR Market Marks Third Anniversary

 
• By Dexter Jie Yan

To date this year, not a single innovative drug-focused biotech has filed for an initial public offering on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Apart from a suspected tightening of listing rules, IPO disclosures and the plummeting share prices of public companies seem to be looming large over bioventures aiming considering floating on the bourse.

biotechs absent
Chinese biotechs missing from applicants seeking IPOs on Shanghai's STAR Market • Source: Shutterstock

A dearth of innovative drug developers seeking public listings on China’s Nasdaq-like STAR Market has made investors scratch their heads, as the bourse, hailed as the country’s only stock market open to pre-revenue companies, marked its third anniversary of opening on 13 June.

To date this year, STAR - officially known as the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange - has not yet witnessed a single initial public offering applicant from innovative drug-focused Chinese biotechs,

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