C-Suite Roundtable: Navigating the Healthcare Capital Lifecycle from Seed to Post-Listing

Global investors and healthcare leaders gathered in Shanghai to discuss the healthcare capital lifecycle, focusing on cross-border investment, regulatory milestones and commercialisation pathways for life sciences innovation.

Yesterday in Shanghai, more than 30 business leaders and investors from mainland China and Hong Kong gathered at a South China Morning Post C-Suite roundtable on “The Capital Lifecycle of the Healthcare Sector: From Seed to Post-Listing” held alongside BioShanghai Week 2026. The event, supported by IHH Healthcare North Asia, featured guest speakers Nisa Leung, founding managing partner of Aulis Capital, and Dr Kenneth Tsang, regional chief executive officer of IHH Healthcare North Asia.

One theme that emerged was the gap between scientific innovation and the pathways needed to finance and commercialise it. Participants contrasted China’s growing biotech pipeline with deeper funding pools and markets in the US and Europe, while exploring out-licensing, “NewCo” structures and multi-regional clinical trials.

Hong Kong’s role also came into focus. Participants discussed the city’s potential as a testing ground for healthcare innovation, and how takeover and delisting requirements affect biotech exit pathways. They also considered how greater cross-boundary clinical data flows and trial coordination could help connect mainland patients with international regulatory frameworks. This came as Hong Kong launched its first Five-Year Plan, which aims to develop the city into an international health and medical innovation hub.

AI-driven drug discovery illustrated a capital challenge. With computing and talent adding to costs, the discussion considered strategic computing partnerships instead of heavy hardware investment, alongside the need to anchor research & development in validated clinical needs.

Taken together, the discussion traced the healthcare capital lifecycle linking financing and clinical validation with regulatory pathways, commercialisation and international market access.