Yiming Liu

Yiming Liu is partner in charge of Cooley's Shanghai office. He advises life sciences, healthcare and technology companies throughout their lifecycles, and has substantial experience representing high-growth companies, institutional investors and investment banks in strategic transactions, including IPOs in Hong Kong and the US, cross-border M&A, venture capital financings, joint ventures, and licensing and collaboration agreements.

Yiming has practiced corporate law in New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and he previously received academic training and advanced degrees in molecular, cellular and developmental biology and health services administration. Yiming leverages his broad experience and technical background to help clients achieve their desired results.

Yiming was named a “Growth Driver” by China Business Law Journal (CBLJ) and included in CBLJ’s 2023-2024 “The A-List” elite lawyers in China. He was also shortlisted as "Dealmaker of the Year - International" by Thomson Reuters, Asian Legal Business (ALB) China Law Awards 2024. He has been ranked as a “Leading Partner” for Life Sciences and Healthcare in China (Foreign Firm) in the Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2025 rankings. In addition, he has been recognized by International Financial Law Review (IFLR1000) as a "Highly Regarded” lawyer for Capital Markets, M&A, and Private Equity practices in China (Foreign Firm) in the 2024 Asia Pacific rankings. He has also been ranked by ALB among "2022 ALB China Top 15 Capital Markets Lawyers" and among "2022 ALB China Top 15 Rising Lawyers". 

Yiming is a native Mandarin speaker and is fluent in English.

Representative Matters:

Capital Markets (Hong Kong)

• Asymchem’s US$979 million Hong Kong IPO (the largest healthcare Hong Kong IPO in 2021)
• RemeGen’s US$515 million Hong Kong IPO (the world’s largest biopharmaceutical IPO in 2020)
• Innovent Biologics’ US$421 million Hong Kong IPO (the largest biotech Hong Kong IPO in 2018)
• Keymed Biosciences’ US$400 million Hong Kong IPO 
• Akeso Biopharma’s US$383 million Hong Kong IPO and HK$1.2 billion follow-on offering
• Brii Biosciences’ US$320 million Hong Kong IPO
• Jacobio Pharmaceuticals’ US$174 million Hong Kong IPO and placement of existing shares and top-up subscription of new share under general mandate totaling HK$160.4 million
• ImmuneOnco Biopharmaceuticals’ US$41 million Hong Kong IPO
• YZY Biopharma’s US$22.4 million Hong Kong IPO
• Hygeia Healthcare’s US$286 million Hong Kong IPO
• Proposed Hong Kong IPO of Biokin Pharmaceuticals, Jiuyuan Gene Engineering, Shulan Health, Betta Pharmaceuticals, Shukun Technology, VISEN Pharmaceuticals, etc.
• Morgan Stanley and CICC in Taimei Technologies’ HK$335 million Hong Kong IPO
• Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in CStone Pharmaceuticals’ US$285 million Hong Kong IPO
• Morgan Stanley and CICC in Simcere Pharmaceutical’s US$461 million Hong Kong IPO
• Citi Bank and Huatai International in Cryofocus Medtech’s HK$210 million Hong Kong IPO
• CICC in Laekna Therapeutics' US$101 million Hong Kong IPO
• Underwriters in the proposed Hong Kong IPO of Duality Biologics, Insight Lifetech, Genecast, Insilico Medicine, BrainAurora Medical Technology, etc.

Capital Markets (US)

• Advanced Accelerator Applications in its proposed IPO and listing on Nasdaq
• CooTek in its US$57 million IPO and listing on the NYSE
• Deutsche Bank and Piper Jaffray as joint book-running managers in TCP International Holdings Ltd.’s US$73 million IPO and listing on NYSE
• An AI-assisted drug development company in its proposed IPO and listing on Nasdaq
• A small molecule immunology therapy developer in its proposed IPO and listing on Nasdaq

Mergers and Acquisitions

• Chimagen Biosciences in its agreement to sell CMG1A46, a clinical-stage dual CD19 and CD20-targeted T-cell engager (TCE), to GSK with US$300 million upfront and US$500 million development and commercial milestone payments
• Asymchem Laboratories in its acquisition of the API Pilot Plant and R&D Laboratory at the former Pfizer UK Sandwich Site, which marks the establishment of Asymchem's first Europe-based R&D and manufacturing hub 
• Brii Biosciences (HKSE: 2137) in its agreements with VBI Vaccines (NASDAQ: VBIV) to acquire the IP for BRII-179 (VBI-2601), the manufacturing capabilities and assets of manufacturing facility in Rehovot, Israel, and an exclusive license to develop and commercialize VBI-1901 in Asia Pacific excluding Japan
• Asymchem in its agreement to acquire Snapdragon Chemistry, Inc., a US technology company
• Roche in its proposed acquisition of a US-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company
• Didi Chuxing in its US$35 billion merger with Uber China
• Apex Technology as a consortium leader in the US$4 billion acquisition of Lexmark International
• Summit Healthcare Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: SMIH) in its de-SPAC transaction with Yisheng Bio Co., Ltd.
• Baidu in its proposed acquisition of a European multinational technology business
• BATS Global Markets in its US$365 million acquisition of Hotspot FX, a leading institutional spot foreign exchange market, from New Jersey-based financial services firm KCG Holdings
• Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance in its US$370 million acquisition of Engine Lease Finance Corporation and Beacon Intermodal Leasing from The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ
• Roper Technologies in its acquisition of Illinois-based RF IDeas, which was one of two concurrently announced acquisitions with a combined purchase price of US$277 million
• Roper Technologies in its proposed acquisition of a European tech company
• First Data Corporation in its proposed acquisition of a US-based finance company
• EBX Group in its proposed sale of mining division and debt restructuring
• Comcast in its proposed acquisition of a US-based communications company
• Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division (GS MBD) in its proposed acquisition of a US-based online finance company
• iRay Technology in its proposed acquisition of a US-based medical imaging technology company
• QST and SummitView Capital in the proposed acquisition of a US-based tech company

Private Equity / Venture Capital

• Chimagen Biosciences in its Series B financing led by Foresite Capital and Lilly Asia Ventures
• D3 Bio in its US$62 million Series A+ financing
• Lupeng Pharmaceutical in its US$35 million Series Pre-B financing
• Pulnovo Medical in its latest financing round totaling tens of millions of dollars
• JHL Biotech in its spin-off and US$125 million private financing of its manufacturing business
• Lilly Asia Ventures in its participation in the Series B financing of ArriVent Biopharma that raised US$155 million
• Didi Chuxing in its more than US$5.5 billion private financing round led by SoftBank
• Huya (a live-streaming game platform in China) in its US$461.6 million investment by Tencent
• Megvii (Face++) in its US$460 million Series C financing round
• ByteDance (Toutiao) in leading a private financing round of India’s news and content aggregator DailyHunt that raised US$25 million
• TalkingData in its Series F financing round
• Crestview Partners in various private equity transactions in the US, including the investment in its portfolio company Key Safety Systems, a Michigan-based company that develops and manufactures automotive safety systems, by FountainVest Partners
• Tailwind Capital in the sale of ReTrans, a leading US non-asset brokerage provider of intermodal transportation, to Switzerland-based Kuehne+Nagel, one of the world's leading logistics companies with a focus on providing information technology-based integrated logistics solutions
• GGV Capital in leading the US$17.5 million Series B financing of Privy, an Indonesian tech company
• CPE in its investment in Acotec Scientific
• YF Capital in its investment in WuXi Diagnostics
• YF Capital in its investment in Cellular Biomedicine Group (CBMG)
• Ocean Link in its investment in various tourism companies  
• Warburg Pincus in its proposed investment in an education company

Corporate Partnering and Licensing

• Qiming Venture Partners in its formation of and investment into Vignette Bio (NewCo) , a clinical-stage NewCo, with Foresite Capital, Samsara Biocapital, and Mirae Asset Capital Life Science, and in Vignette Bio’s licensing agreement with EpimAb Biotherapeutic for its BCMA-targeting T-cell engager (TCE) EMB-06
• A Chinese innovative pharmaceutical company in its asset licensing agreement and equity agreement with a NewCo formed by a US venture capital firm
• FutureGen Biopharmaceutical in its license agreement with AbbVie to develop FG-M701, a next generation TL1A antibody for the treatment of IBD currently in preclinical development
• Akeso in its amendment of collaboration and license agreement with Summit Therapeutics for Akeso’s proprietary bispecific antibody ivonescimad (AK112) to expand the license territories to include Latin America, Middle East and Africa
• Allorion Therapeutics in its exclusive option and global license agreement with AstraZeneca to develop and commercialize a novel epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) L858R mutated allosteric inhibitor 
• Impact Therapeutics in its global license and collaboration agreement with Eikon Therapeutics for PARP1 selective inhibitors including IMP1734
• Zion Pharma in Roche’s acquisition of global rights to ZN-A-1041 (a blood-brain-barrier-penetrant oral HER2 TKI)
• Rona Therapeutics in its collaboration with Keymed Biosciences to jointly discover and develop first-in-class siRNA therapeutics for glomerulonephritis (also referred as severe kidney diseases)
• InnoRNA in its global strategic collaboration with BeiGene to develop mRNA-LNP therapeutics 
• JD.com and JD Finance in the US$500 million joint ventures for ecommerce and fintech services in Thailand with Thailand’s largest retail conglomerate Central Group and Provident Capital
• Vivo Capital in forming a joint venture, Visirna Therapeutics, with Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ARWAR) and subsequent license agreement for exclusive rights to develop and commercialize four of Arrowhead’s RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics in Greater China
• Beijing Anitech Biotechnology in the joint venture for the production and sale of premium quality research models and services in China with The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) 
• Akeso Biopharma in its collaboration agreement with Pfizer 
• RemeGen in its patent licensing and collaboration agreement with SeaGen (f/k/a Seattle Genetics)
• Innovent Biologics in its technology license agreement with certain European research institutions
• Roche in its research collaboration and licensing arrangements with, and purchase of an option to acquire, Janus Biotherapeutics, a Boston-based biopharmaceutical company, for the development of a small molecule toll-like receptor (TLR) inhibitor for the treatment of autoimmune diseases
• A small molecule cancer biotech in its proposed collaboration agreement with a multinational pharmaceutical company
• A gene therapy biotech in its proposed collaboration agreement with another biotech company
• A vaccine developer in its proposed collaboration agreement with a biotech company
• A US-based biotech company in its proposed joint venture and R&D collaboration agreement with a well-known pharmaceutical investment fund