Interface News Reporter |
Interface News Editor |Xu Yue
Hong Kong's thinly traded Yangtze Life Science, with no attention, no trading volume, and no turnover, suddenly surged on the afternoon of April 5, once rising over 24% to HK$0.385. At the close, Yangtze Life Science was at HK$0.01, up 3.23%.
After a long period of silence, Changjiang Life Technology seems to have made another "violent surge" by riding the hot concept of "cancer vaccine + AI model."
On April 5, Yangtze River Life Sciences announced that it will present new preclinical research data on two investigational cancer vaccines targeting the Rat Sarcoma Viral Oncogene (KRAS) and Programmed Death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1) at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2024 Annual Meeting to be held in San Diego, USA.
Yangtze River LifeTech stated that the preclinical results of the investigational cancer vaccine targeting KRAS and PD-L1 proteins are encouraging, and it hopes to advance this vaccine, along with others, into the clinical research stage.
In addition, Yangtze River Life Science and Technology also announced that, together with its partner XtalPi, they have discovered that their collaborative AI model can significantly improve the design of neoantigen peptide vaccines. It outperforms the most advanced prediction algorithms in predicting MHC-I and MHC-II antigen presentation. In short, this AI model platform helps to more accurately predict immunogenic antigens and design more effective cancer vaccines.
Yangtze River Life Technology is the biotechnology listing platform of the Li Ka-shing family, mainly engaged in biotechnology-related businesses, including health care, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture. XtalPi is an AI pharmaceutical unicorn still in the process of its Hong Kong IPO, describing itself as an innovative R&D platform company based on quantum physics, empowered by artificial intelligence, and driven by robotics.
For a long time, any announcement by CK Life Sciences regarding progress in its cancer-related research or upcoming data releases has triggered significant stock price fluctuations. Notably, this time, CK Life Sciences specifically highlighted the effectiveness of its AI model in the field of drug discovery.
Previously, the most impressive surge in the stock price of CK Life Sciences was from November 6 to 7, 2019. Within two days, the stock of CK Life Sciences soared by 300%.
At that time, Yangtze River Life Science and Technology announced that its melanoma antigen vaccine under research had made significant progress.
The immunotherapy research conducted by Yangtze River Life Science and Technology on its melanoma antigen vaccine seviprotimut-L is a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase III adaptive trial. The trial aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of seviprotimut-L, with the primary endpoints being recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with high recurrence risk after radical surgical resection of melanoma at stages IIB/C, IIIA, and IIIB/C according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC), and is carried out under a special protocol assessment agreement reached with the FDA.
However, as of now, there has been no new clinical information disclosed regarding the melanoma antigen vaccine seviprotimut-L.
Thereafter, between 2020 and 2021, on the eve of the burst of the biotech industry bubble, the stock price of Yangtze River Life Science Technology was manipulated in the same manner, experiencing multiple sharp rises and falls.
For example, on March 7, 2020, in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yangtze River Life Technology announced that it had signed an agreement with a company under Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research to distribute COVID-19 nucleic acid test kits in Hong Kong. Within three days, the stock price of Yangtze River Life Technology surged from an opening price of HKD 0.742 per share to a high of HKD 1.122 per share, representing an increase of 51.21%.
On June 23, 2020, CK Life Sciences announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had granted Fast Track designation for the melanoma antigen vaccine seviprotimut-L. On the same day, the share price of CK Life Sciences rose from HKD 0.852 per share to a high of HKD 1.062 per share.
Returning to the business level, in fact, the R&D and performance growth of Yangtze River Life Technology are lackluster.
As the only cancer vaccine business capable of impacting the stock price of CK Life Sciences, apart from the aforementioned melanoma antigen vaccine seviprotimut-L, all other pipelines are in the discovery or preclinical stage. CK Life Sciences has also provided detailed disclosures of these pipeline products.
The revenue and net profit of Yangtze River LifeTech have stagnated. In particular, its current performance mainly comes from agriculture-related businesses and health product businesses. There is basically no possibility for significant growth in such products.
From 2020 to 2023, Yangtze River Life Technology achieved revenues of 4.943 billion, 5.402 billion, 5.276 billion, and 5.323 billion respectively; pre-tax net profits were 119 million, 238 million, 205 million, and 68.584 million respectively.