WuXi AppTec, China’s largest CRO/CMO, secured a five-year $1.5 billion line of credit from Ping An Bank, a subsidiary of the China insurance company. Details of the agreement were not disclosed, but the agreement apparently includes some form of partnership. The primary goal seems to be healthcare, centered on six major cities including Shanghai. Ping An is no stranger to WuXi: it was one of the investors in WuXi’s $3.3 billion privatization last year. Reports recently surfaced that WuXi in planning to IPO its biologics R&D and manufacturing businesses in a Hong Kong IPO that values the division at $1.5 billion. Now, the Ping An news shows that WuXi’s financial engineering is continuing.
