When domestic innovative pharmaceutical companies are generally still "burning money", the loss of one company has narrowed significantly.
On March 23, Nuocheng Jianhua disclosed its 2021 annual results on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Financial data shows that the operating income of Nuocheng Jianhua in 2021 reached 1.043 billion yuan - because there was almost no revenue in the previous year, the revenue increased by 700 times year-on-year, and the figure is quite amazing.
Moreover, under the background of maintaining a high R&D investment of more than 700 million yuan, the net loss can be reduced from 392 million yuan in the previous year to 66.7 million yuan.
In this regard, Dr. Cui Jisong, co-founder, chairman and CEO of the company, said at the results conference: "The company achieved satisfactory results in the first year of commercialization. ”
In the past year, Nuocheng Jianhua's obutinib was included in medical insurance at the end of the year, and it is expected to achieve sales in 2022; at the same time, Nuocheng Jianhua and bojian and Incyte companies in the United States reached license-out and license-in cooperation, with in and out, and the pattern was initially determined.
However, as an innovative pharmaceutical company, Nuocheng Jianhua is still facing the pressure of commercialization. Moreover, after the company's multiple products enter the clinic in 2022, research and development expenses are bound to increase, and can the company's current book funds and research pipelines be coordinated to deal with it?
Obutinib is expected to have a medical insurance release, and the cash on the books is sufficient
"The first year of commercialization", the test is the starting speed.
At the end of December 2020, Novo Jianhua's BTK inhibitor obutinib was approved for marketing. According to the information disclosed by the company, in mid-January 2021, olibutinib issued the first prescription in the country, and the current sales network covers more than 1,000 hospitals in more than 260 cities across the country.
After a full sales year, oboutinib achieved sales of 241 million yuan last year. At the end of 2021, obutinib successfully passed the medical insurance negotiations. According to the results of new drugs entering medical insurance in recent years, the sales trend is very obvious.
Another piece of Novo Jianhua's income comes from the license-out of osbutinib. In September 2021, Nuocheng Jianhua received BOJIAN's US$125 million, which was the down payment of Obutinib for multiple sclerosis treatment of Bojian.
According to the agreement between the two parties, after the subsequent development and commercialization, Nuocheng Jianhua may receive a potential revenue of 812.5 million US dollars, as well as a share of future sales.
This large amount of revenue directly narrowed the loss of Nuocheng Jianhua in 2021, from 391.9 million yuan in the previous year to 66.7 million yuan.
The outside world questions that authorization is a one-time income, not a long-term profit. In this regard, Nuocheng Jianhua revealed that the company has been seeking follow-up license-out opportunities, and this year is still in full swing to reach new cooperation.
"The company promotes external authorization as a core hematopoietic function." Nuocheng Jianhua said.
To be able to have a choice is the greatest freedom. Freedom requires food in hand so that there is no panic in the heart. From the financial data, the Jianzhi Bureau saw that the book funds of Nuocheng Jianhua Company were very generous. In February 2021, Hillhouse Capital and Weiwu Capital increased their holdings together, injecting US$393 million, which, combined with an increase in revenue, allowed the company's cash and equivalents on its books to reach RMB6,550.5 million by the end of 2021.
In 2021, the R&D investment of Nuocheng Jianhua is 722 million yuan. According to the current scale of R&D investment, the company's book cash stock is enough to support the R&D needs for many years.
Abundant cash is a rare advantage for the current innovative pharmaceutical industry. Since the second half of 2021, it has been very difficult for innovative pharmaceutical companies to raise funds in both the primary and secondary markets, with more than 10 biopharmaceutical companies applying for IPO extensions on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the A-share science and technology innovation board has also backlogged some quasi-listed companies.
To make matters worse, the situation of IPO damming has led to more cautious investment in front-end PE and VC, and the shortage of funds in the innovative drug industry is spreading.
How to survive the "winter of innovative medicine"? A good financial structure can maintain a relatively free choice space and find its proper positioning in the trough period of the industry.
Develop the field of autoimmunity and promote the clinical practice of core products
Disclosed at the same time as the results, there is also the main business plan of Nuocheng Jianhua this year. Among them, the field of autoimmune therapy has been repeatedly mentioned.
Hematological tumors are a common area of application for BTK inhibitors, and obutinib is no exception, and has been approved for multiple indications for the development/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma and relapsed/refractory studdle lymphoma;
However, for the development of indications for autoimmune diseases such as lupus erythematosus, obutinib is the first of the BTK inhibitors already on the market.
The latest data from Nuocheng Jianhua shows that the phase II clinical trial of obutinib for the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus has achieved good results, which is a highlight of the progress of autoimmune research and development of oboutinib this year.
In addition to obutinib, Sinonol Healthcare is also developing other autoimmune drugs, such as the TYK2 inhibitor ICP-332, which was approved for clinical trials in May last year and completed phase I clinical studies in the first quarter of this year, showing good safety.
The Health Bureau has learned that globally, the sales of autoimmune drugs have been growing, and the world's top ten self-free drugs have all been listed in China, but domestic companies have entered this field relatively little. Nuocheng Jianhua also believes: "Although the market for self-free drugs is very large, the current market still needs to be cultivated, which tests the company's commercialization ability." ”
Nosson Jianhua, which specializes in the field of hematology and oncology, also has a layout in the treatment of solid tumors this year. The pan-FGFR inhibitor ICP-192 is expected to make a breakthrough in the treatment of head and neck tumors this year, and is also being clinically treated for cholangiocarcinoma; another pan-TRK inhibitor, ICP-723, is currently in phase I dose escalation trials. Both solid tumor drugs are being studied simultaneously in China and the United States.
A large number of drugs under development have entered the clinic, which is bound to put pressure on the company's research and development costs.
In response, Nuocheng Jianhua responded that it will clarify the focus. For example, the newly announced ICP-B05, a potential first-in-class drug jointly developed by Nuocheng Jianhua and Connoa, can treat a variety of cancers. Nuocheng Jianhua said that the second quarter of this year will soon submit a clinical application for ICP-B05, "this year's full promotion is the pipeline varieties that have a high probability of entering the clinic within this year." ”
At the same time of self-research, Nuocheng Jianhua also said that it will consider the opportunity of license-in to expand the depth of globalization. In August 2021, Nuocheng Jianhua introduced the CD19 monoclonal antibody tafasitamab of incyte Company of the United States, and obtained the right to develop and commercialize in Greater China. In the future, there may be more similar cooperation.
Affected by the biomedical plunge since the second half of 2021, the Hong Kong stock price of Nuocheng Jianhua is currently at an all-time low, but it is also one of the few 18A Hong Kong listed companies whose stock price is above the issue price.
Judging from the equity structure disclosed by the company, Hillhouse, which increased its capital in early 2021, is still the company's largest shareholder and has not reduced its holdings in the downward stage of the stock price. Moreover, at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, Nuocheng Jianhua also announced that "two major shareholders purchased about 13 million shares of the company through on-site transactions."
Some investors said: "Compared with many companies, at least the prospects of Nuocheng Jianhua are relatively clear." This may be the reason why Hillhouse insists on being bullish. ”
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