CSPC intends to acquire Mingkang Biologics, and large pharmaceutical companies buck the trend and copy biotech kicked off
Source: Yaozhi Network/Forest
Under the cold winter, the era of biotech is coming against the trend of big pharmaceutical companies.
On 9 February, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group announced that it had completed the acquisition of 100% interest in Zhuhai Zhifan Enterprise Management Consulting Center (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Zhuhai Zhifan"), a limited partnership established in the People's Republic of China, from an independent third party.
The registered capital of Guangzhou Mingkang Biological Engineering Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Mingkang Biological"), a company established in the PRC, is currently RMB94,452,874, representing approximately 51% of the total registered capital of Mingkang Biologics as at the date of this announcement. Under the relevant agreement, the Group will inject RMB154 million into Mingkang Bio through Zhuhai To Van.
Mingkang Bio is a biotechnology company engaged in the research and development, production and sales of biological drugs. The company's independent research and development of Mingfulle (recombinant human TNK tissue plasminogen activator for injection) is a third-generation specific thrombolytic drug with intellectual property rights, which was listed in China in 2015 for the treatment of thrombolysis in patients with acute myocardial infarction within 6 hours of onset; its indications for cerebral infarction thrombolysis were approved for clinical trials in 2017 and phase III clinical trials (TRACEII) were carried out in 2021. As of January 28, 2022, 61 research centers have been launched, enrolling 1,362 patients.
CSPC Believes that the product has good commercial potential and the acquisition will further strengthen the Group's product pipeline and provide new growth momentum.
Under the cold winter, the merger and acquisition cooperation of pharmaceutical companies began
Last year, in the A/H cities, in addition to Traditional Chinese Medicine, the pharmaceutical section went up and down and ended in the cold wind.
At the beginning of 2022, the situation is even worse, and pharmaceutical stocks have fallen to make people doubt life. Yesterday, WuXi AppTec and WuXi Biologics fell sharply because of an "Unverified List" (UVL).
In the cold winter of capital, enterprises face different destinies.
On the one hand, biotech, which has an absolute innovation advantage, is still favored by capital and has no shortage of funding sources. For example, Aibo Bio raised more than a billion US dollars last year, and it has abundant funds in hand. But there are many biotechs who do not have much money in hand, and have lost the window to continue financing, and have to consider cooperating with other large pharmaceutical companies or terminating research and development projects.
On the other hand, the established pharmaceutical companies that can achieve stable income and abundant cash flow began to look for new cooperation projects and began to acquire biotech against the trend. The acquisition of Mingkang Bio by CSPC Pharmaceutical Group will obtain a new generation of thrombolytic new drug recombinant human TNK tissue type plasminogen activator (trade name: Ming fu le). It is reported that Mingfule is clinically used for acute myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, pulmonary embolism and venous embolism of the lower extremities for thrombolytic therapy, with a unit price of 4000-8000 yuan / box (1.0 * 10E7IU / 16mg). After CSPC Group holds the shares, it may be better promoted.
Source: Mingkang Bio
"Accumulate grain and build walls" to survive the cold winter
Innovation is never an easy task and requires a steady stream of financial support.
Dr. Chen Zhisheng of WuXi Biologics said in yesterday's live broadcast that the pharmaceutical industry is relatively special, even if the market is difficult, as long as you are new enough, you can still get enough money. In the case of a poor overall market, people are more willing to look for more certain factors. With truly innovative technology, there is no need to worry about finding financing.
Unlike biotech, which relies on financing to burn money for research and development, the old pharmaceutical companies with "self-hematopoietic function" have also transformed into innovative pharmaceutical companies under the drive of policies. They are basically stable in the domestic pharmaceutical market, and may "pick up leaks" in the cold winter. For example, Hengrui Pharmaceutical has tens of billions of monetary cash, and if the License in strategy is fully rolled out, it is enough to buy many pipelines. Hengrui is indeed doing this, including Cornerstone's CTLA-4, Tianguangshi's CD20, Wanchun Pharmaceutical's Punabulin, and Yingli Pharmaceutical's YY-20394.
Of course, the challenge facing the pharmaceutical industry is not only capital shortage, but also policy changes.
In China, a series of medical reform policies represented by quantitative procurement and national medical insurance negotiations have sounded a wake-up call for pharmaceutical companies: if they want to make great strides in the competitive pharmaceutical industry, they must "accumulate grain and build walls". But at the same time, everyone's expectations for the domestic innovative drug ceiling are not high, and they hope that the state can spend more money on the pharmaceutical industry.
Internationally, the results of this year's domestic PD-1 examination will be announced. Dr. Chen Zhisheng believes that the internationalization of PD-1 should now do the following two things: one is that the indications are differentiated; the other is that the clinical data should be good. If the unmet clinical needs can indeed be met, it is very likely that it will be approved abroad.
After resisting this wave of winter, spring will come again.
Editor-in-Charge: Ruri
Disclaimer: The views in this article only represent the author himself, do not represent the position of Yaozhi Network, welcome to exchange and supplement in the message area; if you need to reprint, please be sure to indicate the author and source of the article.