Ms Kimberly Nearing, Head of Life Sciences at Cedrus Investments (Cedrus), was invited to moderate the first panel of the China Focus@BIO Conference in Philadelphia held on 2^nd June 2019. Kim was also a panellist at the Redefining Early Stage Investments ("RESI") Conference, an international venue for early-stage life science companies across the fields of drugs, medical devices, diagnostics, and digital health to source investors from around the globe, create relationships and potentially secure funding. Both events took place in conjunction with the 2019 BIO International Convention - the largest biotechnology conference in the world (16,000+ attendees from 67 countries).

At China Focus@BIO, the panel discussion Ms Nearing led was entitled "Seeing through clouds: opportunities and challenges with cross-border investment and partnership." Panellists included Dr Wendy Pan, Partner at Goodwin (Hong Kong); Mr Herwig Janssen, VP Licensing & Acquisitions Emerging Markets, Janssen Pharmaceuticals; Dr Dan Zhang, Executive Chairman, Fountain Medical Development Ltd.; Dr Cynthia Cai, Senior Advisor, Northern Light Venture Capital; and Dr Mark Tang, Managing Director, Good Health Capital.

At RESI, Ms Nearing participated in the panel discussion entitled "Asia Corporates & Strategic - Major Players in the Asian Markets Look Externally for Technologies of Strategic Fit." Fellow panellists included Dr Wendy Pan, Partner at Goodwin (Hong Kong); Mr Larry Cai, Executive Director, Business Development, Fosun Pharma USA; Dr Laura Hong, President, Klus Pharma; and Rohit Pratap Singh, Vice President of Investments, Xeraya Capital.

At both events, the focus of the discussions was around the exciting growth of the life sciences industry in China and the strategies western companies are deploying to identify strategic investors and partners in China. Ms Nearing said, "Cedrus has been inundated with requests from healthcare companies in Europe, Canada, Australia and the U.S. seeking its local expertise in cross-border transactions and broad access to investors and corporate partners in Asia, particularly China. In working with corporate clients, we are always focused on helping them identify and execute their optimal market entry strategy especially into the Chinese market."