{"slug": "axiom-biosciences-is-skipping-nasdaq-for-hong-kong-and-the-math-behind-that-call", "title": "Axiom Biosciences is skipping Nasdaq for Hong Kong and the math behind that call is hard to argue with", "summary": "Axiom Biosciences, a San Diego-based clinical-stage biotech, plans a Hong Kong IPO in 2027 targeting at least $200 million, followed by a U.S. secondary listing in 2029, citing deep biotechnology capital and clinical partners in Asia. The company, rebranded from Cytonus Therapeutics on June 23, reported Phase 1 results on July 14 for its Wharton's Jelly-derived stem cell therapy in newborns, with no deaths at 12 months and no treatment-related serious adverse events. CEO Remo Moomiaie-Qajar said Hong Kong offers investors and partners closer to the company's Asian operations, making it the first U.S.-operating biotech to list primarily in Hong Kong.", "body_md": "*Axiom Biosciences wants Hong Kong first and Nasdaq later, and that order tells you where biotech capital is moving now.*\n\nAxiom Biosciences isn't trying to make a symbolic point by starting its public-market life in Hong Kong. It wants at least $200 million in a 2027 IPO, then a secondary U.S. listing in 2029, and the company says Hong Kong gives it something Nasdaq can't offer as cleanly: investors and clinical partners closer to the work it already does in Asia.\n\nThat is the story. Not the branding. Not the novelty of a San Diego biotech looking east. The useful question is simpler: if you run a clinical-stage company with Asian trial partners, Asian investors and expensive U.S. development costs waiting ahead, why would Wall Street automatically be your first stop?\n\nThe company itself is still newly named. Axiom rebranded from Cytonus Therapeutics on June 23, saying the new identity paired its regenerative medicine programs with AI-enabled drug design and targeted delivery work. The company was founded in 2018 and is led by founder and CEO Remo Moomiaie-Qajar, M.D. Its lead program is a Wharton's Jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cell therapy for newborns with intraventricular hemorrhage and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, two severe brain injuries in infants.\n\nThe timing helps explain the listing plan. On July 14, Axiom reported Phase 1 results from nine newborns, five with severe IVH and four with HIE, in a trial of the therapy it co-developed with South Korea-based Medinno. Axiom said the study had no deaths at 12 months, no treatment-related serious adverse events and encouraging 24-month cognitive and motor outcomes. The company also said the diseases carried a historical natural mortality rate of about 46% within the first year for infants with severe IVH. That is a small trial. It is still a real data point.\n\n## Hong Kong is not the fallback\n\nSouth China Morning Post reported on July 21 that Axiom is targeting at least US$200 million through a Hong Kong IPO in 2027, followed by a U.S. secondary listing in 2029. The paper also reported that Axiom says it would be the first biotech firm operating in the U.S. to list primarily in Hong Kong. Keep the wording tight there. The company is making the claim, and it matters because this is exactly the kind of first that bankers turn into a pitch deck if the deal works.\n\nMoomiaie-Qajar's stated reason was direct. According to the South China Morning Post, he said Axiom planned to list in Hong Kong because \"deep biotechnology capital\" and many of the company's clinical partners are increasingly there. Fierce Biotech reported the same strategic logic, adding that Axiom's 2023 Series A, when it was still Cytonus, raised $11.7 million from an investor group led by Seoul-based Partners Investment, alongside other Asian and U.S. investors.\n\nYou don't need to romanticize that. Follow the money and the trial geography. Axiom's lead therapy was co-developed with Medinno in South Korea, and its next stage will need capital, regulatory work and trial execution. If your company already depends on Asian clinical relationships, a Hong Kong primary listing is not an exotic detour. It's a financing decision.\n\n## The exchange built the doorway\n\nHKEX has spent years making this option easier for biotech companies that are not yet profitable. Its Chapter 18A regime was introduced in 2018 for pre-revenue biotech applicants, and HKEX said in May 2026 that 86 companies had listed under that framework since launch, raising more than US$17.8 billion. The exchange also said Hong Kong had more than 276 biotech and healthcare-related listed companies with a combined market value above HK$5 trillion as of April 2026.\n\nThat scale changes the conversation for founders. A Nasdaq listing still carries deep liquidity and U.S. analyst coverage, but Hong Kong now has a sector-specific public market with enough issuers, investors and rules to make a biotech board take it seriously. Chapter 18A also lets companies list before revenue if they meet conditions around core products, management continuity, market capitalisation and working capital. That fits clinical-stage biotech better than pretending every company should look like a revenue story before it reaches late-stage trials.\n\nThere is also a privacy angle. In May 2025, HKEX and Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission launched the Technology Enterprises Channel for specialist technology and biotech companies, including a confidential filing option for eligible applicants. If you're building drug candidates, trial data and delivery systems, public disclosure is not a harmless paperwork exercise. Competitors read filings too.\n\nThe risk is obvious. A Hong Kong listing doesn't make U.S.-China tensions disappear, and it doesn't guarantee that U.S. investors will reward the company more generously in 2029. Axiom still has to prove that a nine-patient Phase 1 signal can become something regulators and clinicians trust. That is the hard part.\n\nFrankly, the founders who should pay closest attention are not only in biotech. Any hard-science startup with serious Asia exposure should look at Axiom and ask whether the default U.S.-first financing path is still the efficient one. Sometimes it will be. Sometimes it won't.\n\nAxiom is making that question public before most companies are ready to say it out loud.\n\n**Also read:** [Samsung is in talks to take an equity stake in Mistral AI as the French startup seeks €3 billion at a €20 billion valuation](https://startupfortune.com/samsung-is-in-talks-to-take-an-equity-stake-in-mistral-ai-as-the-french-startup-seeks-3-billion-at-a-20-billion-valuation/) • [Fireworks AI closes $1.5 billion Series D at a $17.5 billion valuation as enterprises flee frontier API pricing](https://startupfortune.com/fireworks-ai-closes-15-billion-series-d-at-a-175-billion-valuation-as-enterprises-flee-frontier-api-pricing/) • [Pat Gelsinger's xLight raises $350 million to build the first American rival to ASML's EUV monopoly](https://startupfortune.com/pat-gelsingers-xlight-raises-350-million-to-build-the-first-american-rival-to-asmls-euv-monopoly/)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/axiom-biosciences-is-skipping-nasdaq-for-hong-kong-and-the-math-behind-that-call", "canonical_source": "https://startupfortune.com/axiom-biosciences-is-skipping-nasdaq-for-hong-kong-and-the-math-behind-that-call-is-hard-to-argue-with/", "published_at": "2026-07-22 07:48:01+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-22 08:10:37.266632+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Axiom Biosciences", "Cytonus Therapeutics", "Remo Moomiaie-Qajar", "Medinno", "Hong Kong Stock Exchange", "South China Morning Post", "Fierce Biotech", "Partners Investment"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/axiom-biosciences-is-skipping-nasdaq-for-hong-kong-and-the-math-behind-that-call", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/axiom-biosciences-is-skipping-nasdaq-for-hong-kong-and-the-math-behind-that-call.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/axiom-biosciences-is-skipping-nasdaq-for-hong-kong-and-the-math-behind-that-call.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/axiom-biosciences-is-skipping-nasdaq-for-hong-kong-and-the-math-behind-that-call.jsonld"}}