Cardiovascular MedTech Firm Huihe Medical Pursues STAR Market IPO: Soaring Revenue Amid Persistent Losses, Shrinking R&D and Aggressive Sales Expansion

H&H Healthcare Races for STAR Market IPO: Revenue Surges Amid Persistent Losses, R&D Shrinks, and Idle Capacity Contradicts Aggressive Fundraising for Expansion

The capital market is never short of contradictory narratives, but the contrast surrounding H&H Healthcare’s STAR Market IPO is strikingly real.

According to Beijing Business Today, on June 30, cardiovascularMedical DevicesUnicorn Shanghai H&H Healthcare's STAR Market IPO Application Accepted by the SSE.

H&H Healthcare is a hardcore enterprise armed with proprietary technologies and deeply engaged in the high-end pan-vascular intervention sector.

A look at the financial statements: H&H Healthcare has accumulated losses of over RMB 600 million in the past three years, with uncompensated losses reaching RMB 738 million; R&D personnel and expenses have been continuously reduced, and the team has been shrinking; the production capacity of core products has been idle for a long time, with low utilization rates.

Despite generating just over RMB 100 million in revenue, sustaining substantial losses, and failing to fully utilize existing production capacity, H&H Healthcare plans to raise RMB 1.11 billion to significantly expand its production capabilities.

Shrinking R&D to conserve cash while splurging on capacity expansion to boost scale—this counterintuitive strategy highlights a typical paradox faced by many sci-tech firms during their IPOs.

H&H Healthcare specializes in the R&D, manufacturing, and sales of innovative pan-vascular interventional devices, covering three major sectors: structural heart intervention, vascular intervention, and oncology intervention, with multiple first-of-their-kind domestic products.

Among these, the K-Clip transcatheter tricuspid annuloplasty system, approved in March 2025, is a flagship product in the field of heart valves; the domestically produced C-Wave intravascular shockwave catheter has obtained indications for peripheral and coronary applications; and Vispearl, polyvinyl alcohol embolization microspheres, is the first domestically developed drug-eluting radiopaque microsphere, breaking the monopoly of foreign companies.

Three core products account for nearly all revenue. In 2025, K-Clip accounted for 42.43%, C-Wave for 34.71%, and Vispearl for 20.16%, with the three combined contributing over 97% of total revenue.

Driven by the successive launch of its products, the company has achieved explosive revenue growth. From 2023 to 2025, annual revenue surged from RMB 2.8037 million to RMB 102 million, representing a nearly 36-fold increase over three years and demonstrating significant acceleration in commercialization.

However, despite the rapid revenue growth, losses have continued to mount. The net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company recorded deficits of RMB 201 million, RMB 190 million, and RMB 219 million over the past three years, respectively, amounting to a cumulative loss exceeding RMB 600 million. Losses persisted even after excluding non-recurring items; although the deficit narrowed in 2025, it still exceeded RMB 68 million. Net operating cash flow has been negative for three consecutive years, indicating that the core business is completely unable to generate internal cash flows.

The company explained that the research and development cycle for medical devices is long and requires substantial investment; it is currently still in the early cash-burn phase and has not yet entered a period of stable profitability. Lin Xianping, an associate professor at Zhejiang University City College, also pointed out that its commercialization is still in the early stages, and high R&D and promotional expenses will continue to weigh on profits in the short term.

If burning cash before turning a profit is the norm, then another set of data from H&H Healthcare appears particularly striking—it is actively scaling back its R&D capabilities.

From 2023 to 2025, the number of R&D personnel decreased from 87 to 58, representing a turnover rate of over 30%, with their proportion dropping from 37.5% to 25.22%. Meanwhile, the sales team surged from 13 to 54 members, accounting for 23.48% of the total workforce. R&D expenses also fell from RMB 134 million to less than RMB 90 million, accompanied by a corresponding reduction in R&D compensation expenditures.

The company responded that its core products have entered mass production and commercialization is gradually maturing, prompting it to optimize resources, streamline its R&D team, and focus on its core pipeline. However, industry experts argue that multiple pipelines still under development require continued investment, and the ongoing reduction in R&D personnel could lead to missed market windows and undermine long-term competitiveness.

R&D contraction, persistent losses, and cash flow pressure are warning signs for listed companies to avoid risk. In contrast, H&H Healthcare has still proposed a fundraising plan of 1.11 billion yuan despite the low utilization rate of its existing production capacity. Of this amount, 430 million yuan will be used to build a new production center, focusing on expanding the production capacity of core products such as K-Clip.

Taking the tricuspid annulus clipping system as an example, the annual designed production capacity is 5,000 sets. In 2025, the actual output was only 1,435 sets, with sales volume reaching just 657 sets, resulting in a capacity utilization rate of less than 30%. Despite the existing production capacity being underutilized, there is an urgent push to expand new production lines.

If hospital coverage and the ramp-up of medical insurance reimbursement fall short of expectations, and if products under development fail to provide timely succession, the newly established production capacity is likely to remain largely idle, thereby exacerbating losses. However, the company adopts a flexible manufacturing model; should its subsequent pipeline progress smoothly and overseas markets be successfully penetrated, these risks could be mitigated to some extent.

       Original Title: Cardiovascular Medical Device Company H&H Healthcare Races for STAR Market IPO: Revenue Growth Continues Amid Losses, R&D Contracts While Sales Expand, Fundraising to Boost Production Capacity