2025.03.27
On January 24, 2025, Ascentage Pharma Group International ("Ascentage Pharma", the "Company" or the "Issuer") (NASDAQ: AAPG, HKEX: 06855) issued 7,325,000 American depositary shares and was listed on the NASDAQ, raising funds exceeding USD 126 million.
Ascentage Pharma is a global biopharmaceutical enterprise in the commercialization stage. It develops innovative drugs in areas such as oncology, chronic hepatitis B, and aging-related diseases. With its technical expertise in structure-based drug design and innovative pharmaceutical research and development, the Company has established a robust product pipeline including nine small-molecule drug candidates in various clinical stages. These include novel and effective BCR-ABL1 TKI, Bcl-2 and dual-target Bcl-2/Bcl-xL inhibitors, inhibitors targeting the IAP and MDM2-p53 pathways, and next-generation multi-kinase inhibitors such as FAK/ALK/ROS1 for cancer treatment. It is the only global enterprise with clinical development candidates targeting all three known key regulators of cell apoptosis. The Company is conducting over 40 Phase I/II clinical trials in China, the United States, Australia and Europe. Its core product 耐立克® (Olverembatinib) has been approved for marketing in China and has entered the commercialization stage.
JunHe acted as the PRC legal counsel to Ascentage Pharma and provided comprehensive legal services for its U.S. IPO and data compliance matters. JunHe conducted PRC legal due diligence in accordance with U.S. IPO requirements and issued PRC legal opinions, reviewed and revised the prospectus and other application and offering documents related to the IPO, and assisted in responding to inquiries from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concerning PRC laws. JunHe also conducted PRC legal due diligence in accordance with the CSRC's filing requirements for overseas listings and issued legal opinions, assisted Ascentage Pharma in preparing the full set of filing documents to be submitted to the CSRC, and helped respond to the CSRC's inquiries. JunHe advised the Company on data compliance-related issues, issued a data compliance memorandum, and assisted in responding to inquiries from both the SEC and the CSRC. The JunHe team maintained communication and collaborated closely with the other intermediaries. They assisted Ascentage Pharma in completing filing with the CSRC for its overseas listing and obtaining the SEC's approval for its IPO application.
In an extremely challenging and uncertain capital market, Ascentage Pharma completed its securities issuance on schedule and achieved an outstanding outcome. Its significance lies in the following: (1) Ascentage Pharma became the first biopharmaceutical company approved by the CSRC to go public in the United States since the beginning of 2024. It was also the first company to submit an IPO application and CSRC filing application in 2024 and to complete the CSRC filing process in the same year for a U.S. IPO project; (2) Ascentage Pharma is the first Hong Kong-listed 18A company to list in the United States to date; (3) Ascentage Pharma is the fourth Chinese pharmaceutical company listed in both the United States and Hong Kong, following the dual listings of BeiGene, Zai Lab and Hutchison China MediTech.
The JunHe team responsible for the U.S. IPO matters in this project was led by partners DONG, Ming, TAO, Xudong and XU, Shengao (Shaun). Partner XU, Shengao (Shaun) was responsible for the specific work, with support for the internal control matters from partner SHANG, Shiming (George). Partners DONG, Ming, TAO, Xudong and Gu Yu led the team responsible for the data compliance matters and partner Gu Yu was responsible for the specific work.
