Unfortunately, the ChinaBio® Stock Index participated – fully – in the October stock market unpleasantness. The CB® Index, made up of 15 US-listed biopharma companies whose primary business is in China, fell from 1079 at the beginning of the month to close at 772, a drop of 305 points or 28%. Since early August, when the CB® Index hit a high of 1502, the index has been cut almost in half. There is a morsel of good news is all of this. A strong final week prevented the figures from looking even worse. On Monday afternoon, the CBT Index closed at 664, its low point for the cycle. From there, it rallied 16% in the four sessions that closed out the month. This comparatively small rise may not provide a lot of consolation, but higher prices allow hope that perhaps better times lie ahead.

Last week, we took advantage of the Grand Opening of PharmaLegacy Laboratories’ new facility in Shanghai’s ZhangJiang Hi-Tech Park to talk to the young company (see story). A CRO, PharmaLegacy specializes in a single pre-clinical area: pharmacology services, with expertise in the areas of oncology, bone, orthopedics, inflammation, immune disease, and PD/PK. In an exclusive interview with ChinaBio® Today, CEO Darren Ji, PhD said PharmaLegacy is “a specialty shop that offers one-stop shopping in pharmacology. It is the largest dedicated China pharmacology lab in scale and scope for preclinical services, offering animal-based pharmacology and preliminary toxicity studies.” In the article, Ji further elaborated on how PharmaLegacy came into being, its offerings to the China biopharma community, and the fulfilling challenge of entrepreneurship.

Last week, we also presented the second installment of our three-part ongoing series on proposed changes in China patent laws. The third proposal, which was released just after the Olympics last August, contains the government’s latest thinking on how to alter IP regulations to encourage innovation in China. In this section, authors Charles C. Liu, PhD, JD, and Jeanne J. Liu discuss three topics: (1) Crossover of Invention and Utility Model, (2) Design Patents, and (3) Patent Infringement and Limited Exceptions (see story). 

In individual company news, Sundia MediTech announced that it placed sixteenth in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 China list (see story). It was the second year in a row that CRO Sundia was given the Fast 50 award. As a Fast 50 winner, Sundia will automatically be put in contention for the Deloitte Fast 500 Asia Pacific competition. The Fast 50 list is awarded on the basis of five-year growth in revenues. Last summer, Sundia was made a member of Zero2IPO’s Venture 50 group, also for the second time.