Six Healthcare Companies Named in 2023 Forbes China's Top 50 Most Innovative Enterprises

　　【Pharmaceutical Network Industry DynamicsOn November 9, Forbes China released the "2023 Forbes China Top 50 Innovative Enterprises List," which was further divided into new energy, healthcare, medical devices, electric vehicles and their industrial chains, cloud computing and AI,RobotConcepts and 8 other fields.
 

Among them, in the medical and health field, a total of six companies were selected, namely BeOne Medicines, Legend Biotech, XtalPi, InSilico Medicine, Zhejiang NHU Co., Ltd., and Aimeike.
 

In addition, "medical devices" are listed separately for the first time, with two companies making the list: United Imaging and OUR UNITED CORPORATION.
 

The strong competitiveness of these listed companies is inseparable from their continuous investment in research and development. Data supported by the 2023 Forbes China Top 50 Innovative Enterprises shows that more than 80% of the companies significantly increased their R&D investment, which is about 6% higher than last year.
 

From the perspective of the six healthcare companies on the list, efforts have been made in R&D investment. According to BeOne Medicines' 2022 annual report, R&D investment for the period amounted to $1.64 billion (RMB 11.03 billion), a year-on-year increase of 12.4%, making it the first China-based innovative pharmaceutical company to cross the RMB 10 billion threshold in R&D investment. Under high R&D investment, BeOne Medicines continues to reap innovative results. Currently, BeOne Medicines has 23 development projects and over 60 preclinical projects in its pipeline, covering internal technology platforms and therapeutic modalities such as small molecules, CDAC, monoclonal antibodies, bispecific/trispecific antibodies, ADCs, cell therapies, and mRNA, targeting various high-incidence tumor types in both hematological malignancies and solid tumors. Moreover, BeOne Medicines is expected to advance more than 15 new molecules into clinical stages within the next 18 months.
 

Legend Biotech's 2022 financial report was released, showing annual R&D expenses of $335.6 million, a year-on-year increase of 7%. This is mainly due to Legend Biotech actively advancing its BCMA CAR-T therapy, Carvykti, for frontline treatment and expanding indications. It is reported that Carvykti successfully gained regulatory approval in the United States, Europe, and Japan in 2022, becoming the company’s first successfully commercialized product and the first China-produced CAR-T cell therapy. According to disclosures, Carvykti’s global sales in 2022 reached $134 million, a remarkably impressive figure.
 

Insilico Medicine's R&D expenses in 2022 were $78.175 million. The company expects that as it continues to invest in internal drug development programs and integrated technology platforms, operating expenses will significantly increase in the foreseeable future, with net losses and negative operating cash flow expected to continue in the coming years. Currently, the company has established an internally generated pipeline consisting of 31 projects, covering 29 drug targets, but no commercialized drugs have been launched yet. Among them, the core product ISM001-055 is progressing rapidly and has advanced to the Phase II clinical trial validation stage. This drug is mainly used for treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)-related indications by inhibiting TNIK, targeting a market with broad prospects. According to Frost & Sullivan statistics, the global IPF market size was $3.3 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $5 billion by 2025 and $7.1 billion by 2030.
 

Zhejiang NHU Co., Ltd. has consistently focused on R&D investment, with R&D expenses increasing year by year. The R&D expense ratio has remained above 5% for many consecutive years. According to the 2022 annual report, the company's R&D expenses were 859 million yuan, with an R&D expense ratio of 5.39%, representing a year-on-year increase of 0.10 percentage points.
 

In addition, the 2022 financial report released by United Imaging shows that the company's R&D investment continued to grow in 2022, with a total R&D expenditure of 1.306 billion yuan for the whole year, a year-on-year increase of 34.9%. The proportion of R&D investment to revenue was 15.87%, a year-on-year increase of 1.42 percentage points. This was mainly due to a significant increase in ongoing R&D projects and R&D personnel.
 

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