Life Sciences Scholar Leads Singapore Unicorn to List in HK

Billion-dollar biotech firm invented first blood test kit for early stage gastric cancer

- Magdalene Fung

HONG KONG - Singapore has produced its first billion-dollar biotechnology start-up, 25 years after it began formally building its life sciences industry.

Mirxes, which invented and produces the world's first blood test kit to detect early stage gastric cancer, is helmed by Dr Zhou Lihan, a naturalised Singaporean from the country's maiden batch of life sciences graduates.

He arrived on the Lion City's shores as a 15-year-old PRC (People's Republic of China) scholar, navigating life in a foreign country.

Today, the 42-year-old is chief executive officer and co-founder of Mirxes (pronounced "m'raek'sis"). It is the first South-east Asian biotech start-up to achieve a valuation of more than US$1 billion (S$1.29 billion), when on May 23 it launched its initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX).

The company's market capitalisation is HK$8.29 billion, or US$1.06 billion. It has been trading around HK$30 per share, up 28 per cent from its listing price of HK$23.30.

The microRNA-based cancer-detection start-up, which was spun out of Singapore's public sector R&D agency A*Star in 2014, has yet to become a household name in the country. But it is already a big player in the regional biotech industry.

Now, the company has reached a critical level in its development where it can build on its success only by leveraging on an expansive fund-raising platform with a mature base of investors familiar with the industry.

That is why, instead of listing in Singapore, Mirxes opted to do so first in Hong Kong, Dr Zhou told The Straits Times. He does not, however, discount the possibility of Mirxes listing in Singapore eventually.

Dr Zhou's life story in the Republic tracks closely some of the country's strategic economic policies over the years.