Profex, Inc., a dermatology drug company headquartered in Shanghai, raised $15.5 million in a Series A financing. The round was led by Trident Capital, an international venture capital firm, and joined by Mustang Ventures, Trident’s partner in China venture investing. The new capital will be used to increase the company’s sales efforts and to extend its geographical reach inside China. More details...

China Botanic Development Holdings Limited paid 23.6 million RMB ($3.4 million) to purchase all of Guangdong Kangli Pharmaceutical Company Limited, a company involved in the direct sales of medicine, health care products and equipment in China. China Botanic is a manufacturer of packaged foods, but it has recently been diversifying into pharmaceuticals. China Botanic was drawn to Guangdong Kangli because the company has a license to sell health care products directly to consumers and another license to sell pharmaceuticals on the internet. More details...
Stock Symbol: (HKEX: 2349)

Beijing Beilu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a company that is focused on traditional Chinese medicines, raised 66.6 million RMB ($9.7 million) by issuing 12.5 million shares to seven investors. The largest block went to Infotech Pacific Ventures, which took down 7.5 million shares for 40 million RMB ($5.8 million). After the refinancing, Infotech was the fourth largest shareholder in Beilu, owning almost 15% of the total shares outstanding. The funding gives the company a post-money valuation of $39 million. More details...

International medical device maker Smith & Nephew is expanding its China manufacturing facilities for the usual two reasons: the cost savings and the growing importance of the China medical market. The company is building a wound care manufacturing facility in Suzhou and a plant to manufacture joint replacement parts in Beijing.  More details...

Stock Symbol: (NYSE: SNN)

Sinobiomed has issued a number of press releases in recent days, each detailing the company’s progress in developing a new drug. But its financial reports are harder to find. You can’t really blame them: the company’s financial situation is dismal, so who would want to talk about that? Sinobiomed’s hope is that one of its products in development will turn its fortunes around sometime in the very near future. Meanwhile, the company is scraping along, depending on short-term financial patches to keep bankruptcy at bay. More details...

Stock Symbol: (OTCBB: SOBM)

Venturepharm Laboratories Limited, based in Beijing but listed in Hong Kong as a subsidiary of Venturepharm Holdings, has become the largest shareholder of the NASDAQ listed CRO, Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc. Venturepharm purchased 43.65% of the outstanding common shares of CBI. By completing this sale, Venturepharm follows a pattern in which China-based CROs make deals with complementary companies located in the US. More details...

Stock Symbols: (HKEX: 8225) (NSDQ: CBTE)

China Shenghuo Pharmaceutical Holdings, Inc. will restate its financial reports from the past twelve months, saying that the company has discovered errors in sales commission advances and trade receivables. The Audit Committee and an independent counsel will review Shenghuo’s internal controls and the personnel who are involved. The company did not hint at the magnitude of the restatement, though it does expect to complete the review and present restated results within two months. More details...

Stock Symbol: (AMEX: KUN)

MicuRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held company based in the US and Shanghai, China, named its first preclinical development candidate. MicuRX is developing next-generation antibiotics aimed at multi-drug resistant gram-positive bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). At the same time, the company moved into a new 10,000 square foot laboratory in ZhangJiang HighTech Park in Shanghai. The company had previously presented at the ChinaBio® Investor Forum held in Shanghai last December. More details...

Stock Symbol: (NYSE: PFE)

Lotus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. released its Q2 financial report, which showed the company followed a theme similar to several other China biopharmas this quarter: revenues are sharply higher, but net income fails to keep pace. In fact, Lotus said its net income actually slipped lower than the year earlier period. In terms of actual numbers, Lotus’ revenues climbed a more-than-respectable 51% to $19.4 million, but profits were 27% lower at $2.2 million. Lotus blamed the shortfall on its sales costs, which climbed almost eight-fold. More details...

Stock Symbol: (OTCBB: LTUS)

Benda Pharmaceutical, Inc., which produces the gene-therapy cancer drug Gendicine® along with TCM products and conventional pharmaceuticals, reported that Q2 revenues climbed 40% to $7.3 million. Nevertheless, the company still suffered a loss of $1.8 million in the quarter, though that loss was a significant improvement over the $8.8 million that Benda lost in the year-earlier quarter. The results from the company’s SiBiono subsidiary, which produces Gendicine, were not as positive. Revenues dropped 47% in the period to $800,000. More details...

Stock Symbol: (OTCBB: BPMA)