Gan&Lee Pharmaceuticals: Executive Share Reductions and a €726M Overseas Deal in One Week

BEIJING—Gan&Lee Pharmaceuticals, one of China's leading insulin manufacturers, is navigating a week of contrasting developments: seven top executives announced plans to reduce their shareholdings, while the company simultaneously sealed a major international licensing deal potentially worth up to €726 million (€62 million upfront plus up to €664 million in milestone payments) with Italian drugmaker Menarini.

The dual developments underscore the complex dynamics facing China's biotech sector as it balances domestic market pressures with global expansion ambitions.

Executive Share Reduction

Chairman Chen Wei, directors Song Weiqiang and Du Kai, along with senior executives Xing Cheng, Yuan Zifei, Zou Rong, and Li Zhi—all seven core managers—filed plans to sell up to 120,000 shares each through centralized bidding over the next three months, totaling no more than 840,000 shares, or approximately 0.14% of the company's total equity.

Each executive currently holds 520,000 shares, all derived from equity incentive plans implemented in 2022 and 2024. The 2022 plan granted each executive 120,000 shares at a price of RMB 17.35 per share, now fully vested. The 2024 plan awarded 400,000 shares each at RMB 19.79 per share, with 240,000 shares per person currently eligible for unlocking.

The company stated the reductions are intended to repay personal debts—a routine operation in equity incentive arrangements that does not alter fundamental business conditions, industry observers noted.

Strong Financial Performance

The executive sales come against a backdrop of robust financial results. For full-year 2025, Gan&Lee reported revenue of RMB 4.052 billion (approximately CNY 4.05 billion), up 33.06% year-over-year, while net profit attributable to shareholders reached RMB 1.144 billion, surging 86.05% from the prior year.

Domestic insulin sales volume grew 31.71% in 2025 following successful rebidding in China's volume-based procurement program, with coverage expanding to 48,000 medical institutions. International revenue climbed 36.59% to RMB 529 million last year.

In the first quarter of 2026, while overall performance declined, domestic formulation sales still increased 7.48% year-over-year, demonstrating resilience in the core market.

European Breakthrough

In early 2026, Gan&Lee achieved a regulatory milestone when its glargine insulin received marketing approval from the European Commission, becoming the first domestically developed third-generation insulin to reach the European market. The company's aspart and lispro insulin products have also received positive opinions from the European Medicines Agency, paving the way for broader European penetration.

Gan&Lee specializes in insulin analog active pharmaceutical ingredients and injectables, with a complete insulin R&D pipeline. Its flagship products include Changxiulin (recombinant insulin glargine), Suxiulin (recombinant insulin lispro), and Ruixiulin (insulin aspart), maintaining gross margins exceeding 90%.

Major Licensing Deal with Menarini

On August 10, Gan&Lee announced an exclusive licensing agreement with Menarini, Italy's leading pharmaceutical company, granting development and commercialization rights for bofanaglutide—a self-developed GLP-1 receptor agonist administered once every two weeks for overweight or obesity indications—across 39 European countries and regions.

Under the deal terms, Menarini will pay Gan&Lee a non-refundable upfront payment of €62 million, with cumulative milestone payments potentially reaching €664 million. Upon commercialization, Menarini will also owe royalty payments to the Chinese company.

Bofanaglutide has the potential to become the world's first biweekly GLP-1 receptor agonist to reach the market, offering a differentiated position in the competitive GLP-1 landscape dominated by weekly injections from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly.

Looking ahead, Gan&Lee's strategic focus centers on expanding domestic insulin market share, achieving differentiated breakthroughs with bofanaglutide in the competitive GLP-1 field, and sustaining international revenue growth. As the company advances bofanaglutide through global Phase III trials and awaits data readouts from pipeline candidates including GZR4, it is positioning itself to transition from an "insulin leader" to a "metabolic innovation drug platform."