[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong] U.S. biotech company Axiom Biosciences has chosen Hong Kong for its first stock market listing instead of a domestic exchange. Unlike many U.S. biotech firms that typically prioritise Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange, Axiom decided on Hong Kong as its primary listing venue, drawing attention to shifts in the global biotech fundraising market.

CNBC reported on July 21 (local time) that San Diego-based Axiom is pursuing a Hong Kong listing in 2027 and is also considering a secondary U.S. listing in 2029.

Axiom is a biotech company developing therapies in regenerative medicine and genetic medicine. The company expects a Hong Kong listing to help it secure a base of biotech specialist investors while expanding cooperation with Asian clinical trial and commercialisation partners.

Chief Executive Remo Moomiaie-Kazaz (레모 무미아이에-카자르) said the United States still leads global scientific research, but the large-scale fundraising environment needed by biotech companies is not sufficiently supportive.

He said development costs rise sharply at later-stage clinical trials while venture capital capable of large-scale investment is gradually shrinking. He added that the importance of raising funds through public markets is growing, especially for companies that failed to secure large investors from an early stage.

Axiom also assessed Hong Kong's listing regime as competitive. Moomiaie-Kazaz said Hong Kong's relatively strict listing standards were an indicator of a mature biotech ecosystem and that the recent stock performance of Hong Kong biotech firms was better than that of U.S.-listed biotech companies.

Hong Kong's biotech market has been growing quickly in recent years. As Chinese biotech companies continued to list, the Hang Seng Biotech Index rose more than 75 percent since January 2025. Over the same period, gains in the ICE Biotechnology Index and the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index, which track U.S. biotech companies, stayed around 40 to 50 percent.

Still, some in the industry also say U.S. capital markets remain strong. Danny Shang (대니 샹), founding partner at life sciences-focused private equity firm Pontus Capital, said the United States has the deepest and most institutionalised biotech capital market in the world, and globally competitive biotech companies still often raise funds in the United States.

He said it remains rare for a purely U.S. biotech company to choose Hong Kong as its first listing venue. He added that Hong Kong has grown into a major biotech finance hub with more than 70 listed biotech companies and, with recent institutional improvements such as streamlined listing procedures, interest from global companies is rising.

Hong Kong's relatively low corporate valuations are also cited as an investment draw. George Woo (조지 우), a partner at global law firm DLA Piper, analysed that valuations lower than Nasdaq are attracting overseas investors seeking upside potential.

Axiom's strategy also aligns with an Asia-centred clinical development plan. The company is jointly developing a therapy for newborns with severe brain injury with South Korean biotech company Medyno, and the therapy has received 2 designations related to rare paediatric diseases from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In South Korea, it has also completed a phase 1 trial involving 9 newborns, and it is considering expanding the indication to adult stroke patients.

Moomiaie-Kazaz said the speed of clinical development is paramount in the severe brain injury field, where there are currently no regenerative therapies. He assessed Asia as an environment suited to advancing this.

The decision also dovetails with intensifying U.S.-China biotech competition. China is fostering the biotech industry as a national strategic industry through increased investment in basic research, regulatory reforms and efforts to attract overseas talent. It is assessed to be rapidly boosting global competitiveness based on low production costs, abundant research manpower, large-scale patient data and drug development capabilities using artificial intelligence (AI).

Still, the United States continues to maintain an edge in basic science and foundational technologies. A Cure Innovation Index survey released in June showed China had strengths in clinical development and supply chains, but lagged the United States in the level of biomedical research and competitiveness in commercialisation.

In the industry, some assess that the United States is strong at the '0 to 1' stage of driving new scientific discoveries, while China is building competitiveness at the '1 to 100' stage of commercialising them quickly.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government has recently stepped up checks on China's biotech industry. The U.S. Department of Commerce imposed export restrictions on organisations affiliated with genomics company BGI Group, and the Department of Defense included WuXi AppTec (우시앱텍) on a list of companies linked to the Chinese military. WuXi AppTec has filed a lawsuit in response.

In the market, some analyses say Axiom's Hong Kong listing could be a symbolic case showing that the centre of gravity for global biotech fundraising and clinical development is gradually shifting to Asia, beyond a simple change of listing location.