Shanghai Securities News (Reporter Douzao Qi) — Since the establishment of the STAR Market, it has strongly supported the financing and development of “hard tech” enterprises and actively cultivated new quality productivity. It has gathered 111 innovative biopharmaceutical companies, widely covering sub-sectors such as innovative drugs, generic drugs, medical devices, and clinical trial services. The key areas of intervention include treatments for cancer, AIDS, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. The STAR Market has become a major global listing venue for biopharmaceutical companies outside of the U.S. and Hong Kong stock markets, with prominent industrial clustering and demonstration effects. New quality productivity is accelerating its formation.
Sales of China-produced Innovative Drugs Surge, Entering the Performance Realization Phase
Currently, the STAR Market innovative drug companies are successively submitting their 2023 performance reports. The R&D achievements of the majority of these companies are gradually being realized, operational performance continues to improve, new quality productive forces are adding new momentum, and high-quality development has reached a new level.
China's Leading Innovative Drug Company BeOne Medicines Accelerates Internationalization, Achieving Outstanding Performance in the Global Market. In 2023, total revenue reached 17.423 billion yuan, representing an 82.1% year-on-year increase; net loss attributable to shareholders was 6.716 billion yuan, with a reduced loss of 6.926 billion yuan year-on-year, reflecting a 50.77% reduction in losses, primarily driven by core product revenue growth and improved operational efficiency through cost management. Notably, BeOne Medicines' self-developed second-generation BTK inhibitor, BRUKINSA® (zanubrutinib), achieved global sales of 9.138 billion yuan (approximately $1.27 billion) in 2023, becoming the first China-produced innovative drug to surpass $1 billion in annual sales.
Bio-Thera, which adheres to a dual-driven strategy of innovative drugs and biosimilars, achieved a new "milestone" for domestically produced biosimilars in the past year. Its self-developed tocilizumab biosimilar and bevacizumab biosimilar were successively approved by the U.S. FDA for marketing in September and December 2023, setting a precedent for domestically produced biosimilars to enter the U.S. market. Meanwhile, the company has multiple other biosimilars under development currently undergoing global Phase III clinical trials, proceeding smoothly as planned. In 2023, driven by the rapid sales growth of marketed products such as Geleli®, Pubeixi®, and Shiruili®, the company achieved a revenue of 705 million yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 54.86%. In the fourth quarter alone, it generated a revenue of 244 million yuan, marking a year-on-year increase of 232.32%. Looking ahead to 2024, the two biosimilars that successfully passed the FDA review are expected to contribute more substantial overseas revenue to the company.
Amoytop Biotech, the leader in long-acting biologics, has experienced continuous high-speed growth in performance since its listing, with a three-year compound annual growth rate of revenue reaching 38.30%. The market penetration of its core product, PegBio, has been increasing steadily, achieving revenue of 1.79 billion yuan in 2023, representing a year-on-year increase of 54.18%. The launch of PegBio once broke the monopoly of foreign pharmaceutical companies on hepatitis B treatment drugs in China. Currently, the Phase III clinical trial for PegBio, aimed at functional cure of chronic hepatitis B, has been completed and received marketing authorization application acceptance this March. Approval of the new indication is expected to further raise the sales ceiling of this product. Additionally, the marketing application for the company’s self-developed long-acting human growth hormone, Yipesen, was also accepted in January this year, which is expected to further diversify the company's product portfolio and contribute another revenue growth point.
Medical Device Industry Gradually Recovers, Accelerating into an Upward Cycle
In 2023, the 28 medical device companies listed on the STAR Market collectively achieved revenues of 34.384 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 23.89%; net profit attributable to parent company was 7.156 billion yuan, increasing by 44.13% year-on-year. Twenty-two companies reported year-on-year revenue growth, with five experiencing growth exceeding 50%; 26 companies turned a profit, 18 of which saw year-on-year net profit growth, and eight with growth surpassing 50%.
Revenue Growth of Blood Purification Equipment Company, Mountain Beyond Mountain, Surges by 80.65%, with Net Profit Attributable to Shareholders Soaring 228.34%. The core product of Mountain Beyond Mountain, Continuous Blood Purification Equipment, is one of the CRRT devices with the broadest range of indications in the Chinese market. Leveraging the release of demand for medical equipment upgrades, the company has achieved rapid installations, and its product brand influence continues to strengthen. Additionally, on the consumables front, with the launch of new blood purification consumable products such as Continuous Blood Purification Tubing, Hemodialyzers, and Disposable Hemoperfusion Cartridges, the company's consumables have gradually completed listings, creating a synergistic effect with hemodialysis equipment and CRRT, driving high growth in consumables sales. In the future, as volume-based procurement of blood dialysis consumables is implemented in some provinces, it is expected to rapidly increase hospital coverage for the company’s consumables, accelerate the scaling up of its consumable products, and enhance the company’s profitability.
Q1 Performance Stabilizes and Rebounds, Many Companies Welcome "A Good Start"
From the performance data of the first quarter of this year, the biopharmaceutical companies on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board continued the trend of stabilizing quarter-on-quarter that began in Q4 2023, with ongoing improvements in operating conditions.
Biokin Turns Profitable in Q1 2024 After Three Consecutive Years of Losses, with Net Profit Exceeding 5 Billion YuanBiokin's significant increase in Q1 performance was anticipated, primarily due to the timely receipt of an $800 million upfront payment as part of the development and commercialization licensing agreement for BL-B01D1 with multinational pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), which was recognized as revenue this quarter. Previously, in December 2023, the company announced that it had entered into an exclusive licensing and cooperation agreement with BMS regarding its self-developed EGFR×HER3 bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) BL-B01D1. Both parties will jointly advance the development and commercialization of the product. Upon the effectiveness of the cooperation agreement, BMS will pay Biokin an $800 million upfront payment and up to $500 million in near-term contingent payments. Upon achieving development, registration, and sales milestones, Biokin could receive additional payments of up to $7.1 billion. This transaction sets a new record for the total value of a single ADC drug deal globally and establishes new benchmarks for both the upfront payment and total transaction amount in China’s innovative drug licensing deals. It also marks the first successful overseas licensing of a bispecific ADC new drug.
Sinocelltech Also Achieves Turnaround from Loss to Profit. In the first quarter of 2024, Sinocelltech achieved operating revenue of 613 million yuan. While maintaining a high level of R&D investment, it realized a remarkable net profit attributable to shareholders of 74.1974 million yuan. The company stated that the transition from loss to profit was mainly due to the continuous and stable growth of product sales revenue, as well as cost reduction and efficiency improvement through controlling operating costs and enhancing R&D efficiency.
In the medical device field, Eyebright Medical achieved revenue of 310 million yuan in Q1 2024, representing a year-on-year increase of 63.55%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 103 million yuan, up 31.26% year-on-year. The company's outstanding performance in Q1 was driven by steady growth in core businesses such as intraocular lenses, with intraocular lens revenue increasing by 41.67% year-on-year and overseas revenue growing by over 127.9%. Meanwhile, with the gradual promotion of premium products like bifocal lenses, the intraocular lens business maintained robust growth. On the other hand, the company’s contact lens business, after years of strategic development, saw explosive growth in performance, generating revenue of 137 million yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 1504.78%; in Q1 2024, with increased production capacity and scaling, the growth potential and profit contribution of this segment continued to strengthen, providing a second growth curve for the company. Additionally, the company has maintained strong R&D capabilities, with clinical projects such as aspheric trifocal toric intraocular lenses and aspheric extended depth-of-focus (EDoF) intraocular lenses advancing rapidly, which are expected to sustain the company’s technological competitiveness in the ophthalmology sector.