By Colin Kellaher


Sino Biopharmaceutical Ltd. on Thursday said its invoX Pharma unit has agreed to buy clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company F-star Therapeutics Inc. for about $161 million.

Hong Kong-based Sino Biopharmaceutical said invoX would pay $7.12 a share for F-star, a nearly 79% premium to Wednesday's closing price of $3.98 for the Cambridge, England, company.

The transaction, which accelerates invoX's strategy to build Sino Biopharmaceutical's international biopharmaceutical research-and-development platform outside of China, is slated to close in the second half of the year.

Trading in shares of F-star was halted premarket on Thursday.


Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-23-22 0806ET