Kirkland Represents Airdoc and Clover Biopharmaceuticals on Hong Kong IPOs
Kirkland & Ellis advised Beijing Airdoc Technology Co., Ltd. (HKSE: 2251) and Clover Biopharmaceuticals, Ltd. (HKSE: 2197) on their global offerings and listings on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited on November 5, 2021.
Founded in 2015, Airdoc is a global leader and pioneer in providing AI-empowered retina-based early detection, auxiliary diagnosis and health risk assessment solutions. Airdoc is the first “AI medical stock” listed in Hong Kong. Among Airdoc’s core products, Airdoc-AIFUNDUS (1.0), an AI-based Software as a Medical Device approved for auxiliary diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy, is the first AI-empowered retina-based auxiliary diagnosis product to obtain the Class III medical device certificate from China’s National Medical Products Administration. Airdoc, raised approximately $215 million in the IPO, received strong endorsement from blue-chip investors for its pre-IPO investment rounds, including, among others, Fosun, Ping An Healthtech, Sogou, CloudAlpha, GF Fund, IvyRock, Lake Bleu Capital, Lily Asia, and OrbiMed.
Founded in 2007, Clover is a global clinical-stage biotechnology company committed to developing novel vaccines and biologic therapeutic candidates for infectious disease as well as cancer and autoimmune diseases. The company in-licensed the Trimer-Tag™ technology platform, a product development platform for the creation of novel vaccines and biologic therapies, and has leveraged it to become a COVID-19 vaccine developer and created SCB-2019 (CpG 1018/Alum) to address the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. In June 2021, Clover signed an advanced purchase agreement with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to provide up to 414 million doses of its protein-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate for procurement through the COVAX Facility. The agreement marked the largest vaccine procurement contract in China to date. In September 2021, Clover’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate demonstrated 79% efficacy against Delta in its global pivotal phase 2/3 trial, making it the first Chinese company to have vaccine candidate that demonstrated significant efficacy against Delta in a double-blind, randomized clinical trial. Clover’s IPO, raised approximately $258 million, attracted a number of esteemed investors, including, among others, Hillhouse, Temasek and OrbiMed.
Read Airdoc’s listing document
Read Clover’s listing document
The Kirkland team advising Airdoc and Clover was led by capital markets partner Mengyu Lu, with support from capital markets partner Samantha Peng.