3SBio Scraps $290 Million Canadian Pharma Purchase

Drugmaker 3SBio Inc. said it has scrapped a $290 million plan to buy the contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) business of Canada’s Therapure Biopharma Inc., killing a deal that was part of a budding wave of similar purchases by Chinese firms hungry for foreign know-how.

3SBio, a formerly New York-listed company that later privatized and relisted in Hong Kong, announced it was abandoning the joint bid that it made in September through a joint venture with CPE Funds, according to an announcement on its website. The original agreement had a closing deadline of April 30, which the two sides failed to meet, 3SBio said in a brief statement dated May 1.