Global law firm Ashurst acted as the Hong Kong and U.S. counsel to the joint sponsors and the underwriters on the global offering of shares of Cloudbreak Pharma Inc. ("Cloudbreak Pharma"; SEHK: 2592) and its listing on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (HKEx). The transaction marks another milestone for the firm's life sciences capital markets practice and reinforces the firm's strong track record of guiding innovative Chinese biotech companies to access international capital markets.
CCB International Capital Limited and Huatai Financial Holdings (Hong Kong) Limited acted as joint sponsors and overall coordinators. CCB International Capital Limited, Huatai Financial Holdings (Hong Kong) Limited, CMB International Capital Limited and Quam Securities Limited acted as joint global coordinators, joint bookrunners and joint lead managers.
With its history traced back to 2015, Cloudbreak Pharma is a clinical-stage ophthalmic biotechnology company dedicated to developing innovative treatments. Its core product, CBT-001, a potential first-in-class drug candidate indicated for pterygium, has commenced phase 3 MRCT in the United States and China in June 2022 and September 2023, respectively. The company's other core product, CBT-009, a potential best-in-class drug candidate indicated for juvenile myopia, has completed phase 1/2 clinical trial in January 2023 and submitted an Investigational New Drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in July 2024. Other clinical-stage drug candidates include CBT-006 and CBT-004 (both being potential first-in-class drug candidates. Cloudbreak also has four pre-clinical stage drug candidates, namely, —CBT-007, CBT-199, CBT-145 and CBT-011.
Commenting on the transaction, lead partner Li Jiang said:
"We are honoured to have acted as Hong Kong and U.S. counsel to the underwriters and as the prospectus drafting counsel on Cloudbreak Pharma's listing in Hong Kong. This successful IPO underscores both the depth of Ashurst's life sciences expertise and our ability to deliver seamless, cross-border capital markets advice. We look forward to continuing to deploy Ashurst's global platform to support Chinese innovators as they navigate international capital markets."
The Ashurst team was led by partner Li Jiang, supported by Asia Head of corporate transactions Frank Bi, senior associate Maggie Lai, associates Nicole Xu, Li Chen, Joey Lam, Christy Wong, trainee solicitor Lauren Lau, and paralegals Yuning Lin and Peiji Yu.
