Billionaire-backed Biotech Plans Hong Kong IPO
A cancer detection startup backed by US billionaires Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates as well as China’s biggest Internet company Tencent Holdings and several pharmaceutical companies is planning an initial public offering in Hong Kong this year.
The move is thought likely to bolster the Asian financial center’s push to start attracting biotech listings after Hong Kong began applying new rules last year. Reports said the start-up, Menlo Park, California-based Grail, is working with advisers on the proposed share sale, which may seek to raise as much as $500 million.
Grail said in December 2017 that its first product, a screening test for nasopharyngeal carcinoma – a head and neck type of cancer prevalent in Southeast Asia and southern China – would be launched this year in Hong Kong. The company’s goal is to diagnose people at a very early stage even when they have no symptoms.
Backers of the start-up also include Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Merck & Co.
According to Bloomberg, the fledgling company last year completed the largest biotech funding round ever, raising over $900 million in the first close of a Series B financing. Altogether it has raised more than $1.1 billion since its 2016 founding, other reports said.
