InSilico Medicine Hong Kong Ltd.

OrbiMed raised $1.86 billion for its OrbiMed Royalty and Credit Opportunities Fund V on Monday. Via non-dilutive credit and royalty-based financings, the capital will be invested in biopharmaceutical companies, as well as those developing medical devices, diagnostics and tech-forward healthcare services.While the amount is smaller than OrbiMed's $4.3-billion Fund IV, closed in 2023, successfully bringing in funds during a punishing time for private healthcare companies is a positive move for the firm. "Equity markets have been challenging in recent years for biotech and life sciences companies," said OrbiMed General Partner Matthew Rizzo. "The OrbiMed platform is uniquely positioned to fund healthcare innovation and growth on a global basis."The close comes shortly after fellow venture firm Frazier Life Sciences raised $1.3 billion for its twelfth biotech fund, and AN Venture Partners closed its first fund at $200 million to invest in Japanese biopharma innovations. Some of OrbiMed's investments this year include AI-enabled drug design firm Insilico Medicines; shingles vaccine developer Curevo; RayThera and its portfolio of small molecules; and Renasant Bio, which is developing the first truly disease-modifying therapy for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

Chinese drug developer Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals secured a listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange Wednesday in an offering that priced at the high end of its proposed range. The company sold 224.5 million shares at HK$44.05 a piece to raise HK$9.9 billion ($1.3 billion). It had proposed a share price between HK$41.45 and HK$44.05.Hengrui's successful IPO — and with Insilico Medicines waiting in the wings — stands in stark contrast to the absence of activity on US public markets. It's been more than three months since a biotech made its debut on NASDAQ. Biotechs may be hesitant to go for a ride on the US stock market rollercoaster. The threat of pharmaceutical tariffs, drug pricing controls, and a leadership overhaul at US federal health agencies have cumulatively led to a 10% decline for the XBI biotech index in 2025 (see – Vital Signs: Biotech comes out the loser in Marks versus Kennedy faceoff and Vital Signs: What a new CBER director means for biotech and the accelerated approval pathway).In comparison, the Hang Seng Biotech Index, a composite of the 50 largest Hong Kong-listed biotech companies, is up almost 40% for the year as China biotech has surged.For more insight into how the value of US biotechs stacks up against their Chinese counterparts, see Vital Signs: Pfizer buys high, sells low in biggest China deal yet.

Insilico Medicines filed on Thursday to make its third attempt at an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The planned public debut comes about two months after Insilico raised $110 million in a series E to progress its portfolio of AI-designed drugs. The financing reportedly placed the biotech's valuation at more than $1 billion.At the time, CEO Alex Zhavoronkov said the round would be used to expand Insilico's end-to-end generative AI (genAI) platform, and to advance its therapeutic pipeline, calling out lead candidate ISM001-055 in particular. The company revealed late last year that ISM001-055, a small molecule targeting TNIK, met its primary safety endpoint and key secondary efficacy measures in a Chinese Phase IIa study for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Specifically, patients with IPF who received a 60-mg daily dose of ISM001-055 showed a mean 98.4 mL improvement from baseline in forced vital capacity at 12 weeks, while the placebo group experienced a 62.3 mL decline.According to Insilico's website, it has 30 other programmes in development, spanning diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, solid tumours, obesity and pain.The AI-enabled drug discovery firm filed for a Hong Kong IPO two previous times — once in 2023 and again last year — but in both cases, the company let its applications lapse.