Junshi Biosciences was officially listed on the SSE STAR Market on July 15, with the stock code: 688180 and the issue price at RMB55.5/share; the opening price surged by nearly 200%, with the market value peaking at more than RMB150 billion. The stock price slightly fell in the following days, with the closing price reaching RMB111.65/share on July 20 and the market value reaching RMB97.278 billion, still approaching RMB100 billion.
There are often such cases as making a great fortune overnight by going public in the biotech industry in recent years. BeiGene, Innovent, Junshi, and Henlius have been called “four little biotech kings of H shares” by the industry media, common grounds are that founders aged about 50 in the prime of life, international executive management teams, more courageous R&D investment and overseas clinical trial strategies, and crossover teams familiar with entrepreneurship and capital market.
Among those four bio pharmaceuticals companies, BeiGene mainly focuses on technologies in small molecule targeted drugs instead of monoclonal antibodies, while Henlius’ R&D focus is on the layout of biosimilar drugs. Junshi and Innovent resemble each other most: first products marketed by them were both anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibodies, and their layout focuses in the next 3-5 years areto develop new indications of anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibodies.
From “surprisingly synchronizing” to “differentiating”
Innovent was founded in Suzhou in Aug. 2011 and listed on HKEx’s Main Board in Oct. 2018; Innovent’s anti-PD-1 sintilimab (trade name: TYVYT) was offically approved in Dec. 2018 for the third-line treatment of classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma and become the second Chinese-produced anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody approved; Innovent’s bevacizumab biosimilar (trade name: BYVASDA) was officially approved in China in June 2020 to become the second variety marketed of Innovent.
Junshi Biosciences was founded in Shanghai in Dec. 2012 and listed on HKEx’s Main Board in Dec. 2018; Junshi Biosciences’ anti-PD-1 toripalimab (trade name: Tuoyi) was approved for marketing in China in Dec. 2018 for the second-line treatment of melanoma and become the first Chinese-produced anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody marketed.
Therefore, except for one year apart in their founding, Innovent and Junshi were keeping in step, however, with the differences in the new indication layout of their anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibodies and the marketing of Innovent’s bevacizumab, the business development of Innovent and Junshi will be different and this trend will enlarge.
Differences in the R&D pipeline and business strength, etc. will decide which will go further in the future.
Comparison of business performance
Innovent: Its revenues from 2017 to 2019 were separately RMB19 million, RMB9.5 million, and RMB1.048 billion. The reason for the sharp increase in the revenue in 2019 was the same to Junshi: the marketing of an anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody. The sales of sintilimab reached RMB1.016 billion in 2019.
Junshi Biosciences: Its revenues from 2017 to 2019 were separately RMB54 million, RMB3 million, and RMB775 million, with a compound annual growth rate of 278.8%, and net profits attributable to the owners of the parent company being separately RMB-317 million, RMB-723 million, and RMB-747 million.
Innovent and Junshi generated income mainly depending on the business other than their core pharmaceutical product before 2019, which was low. The reason for the sharp increase in their revenue in 2019 was the marketing of the anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibodies. The net profits of both pharmaceutical enterprises were negative and their losses tended to expand mainly because of the clinical study expenses that still could not be temporarily covered by sales revenue.
The sales of sintilimab were RMB200 million more than the sales of toripalimab because the Hodgkin’s lymphoma indication covers more patients than melanoma indication o...
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