The establishment of diplomatic circles, the donation of medicines to create momentum, lianhua Qing plague in the epidemic heat
Text/ Xin Ying Wang Ying Zhu Sihan
Editor / Wang Xiao
Source/Yiling Pharmaceutical official website
A video, two articles, resulting in lianhua Qing plague producer Yiling Pharmaceutical (002603. SZ) has touched three stops in the last four trading days, and its market value has evaporated by 17.9 billion yuan.
On 14 April 2022, a video titled "WHO 'Recommends' Lianhua Qing plague, who told you?" Three days later, two well-known WeChat public accounts published articles entitled "Don't Eat Lianhua Qing Plague to Prevent New Crown" and "During the Epidemic Period: Fake Drugs Are Not Allowed to Take Advantage of the Fire and Loot, It is Not Appropriate to Forcibly Distribute Unproven Chinese Medicines". In particular, the latter directly said that it is necessary to be very clear whether the "Lianhua Qing plague" has indeed been proved to be effective in preventing or treating the new crown, and if the "Lianhua Qing plague" has never been strictly proven to be effective, then the forced delivery of "LianHua Qing plague" will harm the masses waiting for the necessary materials and medicines.
According to calculations, this wave of public opinion led to a total market value of Ling Pharmaceutical shrinking by 12.7 billion yuan in two trading days on April 15 and 18. On April 20, Yiling Pharmaceutical fell to a halt again, and as of the close, the stock price was reported at 29.27 yuan / share, and the latest market value was 48.9 billion yuan.
On April 16, Yiling Pharmaceutical claimed in the media that "the company has never said on any occasion that 'WHO recommends Lianhua Qingpest', and who (WHO) recognizes the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine including Lianhua Qingpest on new crown pneumonia." ”
Yiling Pharmaceutical is indeed the "lucky one" who has benefited from the epidemic. Since 2020, after Lianhua Qingpi was included in the "Diagnosis and Treatment Plan for Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia", sales have soared, driving The revenue of Yiling Pharmaceutical in 2020 to reach 8.782 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to the mother doubled year-on-year to 1.219 billion yuan; in the first three quarters of 2021, the revenue was 8.112 billion yuan, close to the annual revenue of the previous year, and the net profit attributable to the mother was 1.224 billion yuan, exceeding the full year of 2020.
The Lianhua Qing plague developed due to the SARS epidemic has been sold for 18 years. After the storm, a person in the Chinese medicine industry said, "Although it is an exclusive variety, there is actually not much difference between the anti-cold drugs in proprietary Chinese medicines, and the new crown (diagnosis and treatment plan) recommends more than one Chinese medicine. ”
Among the private listed pharmaceutical companies mainly based on traditional Chinese medicine, due to their excellent performance, Yiling Pharmaceutical, Buchang Pharmaceutical and Tasly were once called "troikas", and the other two were not as good as Yiling Pharmaceutical in terms of momentum-building ability.
Academician Wu Yiling, the founder of Yiling Pharmaceutical, not only built an academic system, but also had a strong academician network, which is the most distinctive "label" in his circle and his company.
Wu Yiling and his circle of academicians
Wu Yiling's wish to achieve when the SARS outbreak broke out in 2003 was realized in the 2020 NEW CROWN epidemic. Lianhua Qingyi capsules became the first batch of drugs approved by the State Food and Drug Administration for new indications for new coronary pneumonia.
Lianhua Qingpi capsules were developed for the SARS epidemic, according to the "China Traditional Chinese Medicine News", under the trials of Wu Yiling and his R&D team around the clock, it took only 15 days from the development to the production of Lianhua Qingyi capsules.
In this regard, Yiling Pharmaceutical said on the investor interactive platform on April 20, 2022 that "the research and development process of Lianhua Qingpeng is only 15 days" is inconsistent with the facts. It is also said that it is combined with Wu Yiling's 40 years of research on network disease, on the basis of the three famous formulas of traditional Chinese medicine to prevent and control epidemics, the combination of addition and subtraction is formed into the Lianhua Qing plague group, and the addition of herbs aromatic wet protection of the spleen and stomach, Rhodiola Rosea to improve immunity and healthy qi.
However, in May 2004, when Lianhua Qingpeng was approved for marketing, the SARS epidemic had passed, and the indication of the drug at this time was to treat influenza and fever attack lung evidence.
The second opportunity was in 2009, the outbreak of influenza A (H1N1), Lianhua Qingyi capsules successfully entered the first edition of the former Ministry of Health's "A H1N1 Influenza Diagnosis and Treatment Plan (Trial)", and the sales of the year increased by 670% year-on-year to 505 million yuan. However, this year, everyone's attention was sucked away by the multinational pharmaceutical company Roche, whose anti-flu drug Duffy (oseltamivir) created a myth of $3 billion in annual sales worldwide.
Also in this year, Wu Yiling was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Wu Yiling was the first master's student of Nanjing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and after graduating in 1982, he was assigned to the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine of Hebei Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Ten years later, the 43-year-old Wu Yiling left the hospital and founded the Shijiazhuang Development Zone Medical Research Institute, the predecessor of Yiling Pharmaceutical.
From 2005 to 2019, Lianhua Qingyi Capsules has been included in the diagnosis and treatment plan for respiratory diseases such as influenza by the national health department for a total of 19 times, and has repeatedly become a treatment drug for viral pneumonia such as H1N1, Middle East respiratory syndrome, and H7N9, which has earned enough fame for Yiling Pharmaceutical.
Until the "incurable" new crown virus once again broke the calm of life. On January 24, 2020 Chinese New Year's Eve, three academicians, Zhang Boli, Huang Luqi and Tong Xiaolin, received a task from the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and led a team of top Chinese medicine experts from all over the country to Wuhan to participate in the treatment. In the third edition of the new crown pneumonia diagnosis and treatment plan implemented at this time, TCM treatment was listed separately for the first time, but Lianhua Qingpi has not yet been listed.
By the time the fourth edition of the new crown pneumonia diagnosis and treatment plan was released on January 27, 2020, Lianhua Qingpeng was listed among the recommended proprietary Chinese medicines during the medical observation period, and was comparable to Jinhua Qinggan Granules, Wind Relief Capsules, and Windproof Tongsheng Pills.
Western medicines that entered the regimen at the same time were also some well-established antiviral drugs, including α-interferon nebulization inhalation and lopinavir/ritonavir. However, with the development and listing of chemical drugs and biological drugs against the new crown virus, these two drugs later withdrew from the new crown diagnosis and treatment plan.
"In the early days of looking for new crown pneumonia drugs, enterprises and experts were very active in doing some research, and if they showed some effects, they could get the approval of experts ' big guys' and naturally stand out." Li Tianquan, co-founder of Yaozhi Network, told Caijing Great Health.
Academician Zhong Nanshan's team is also screening more than 40 kinds of proprietary Chinese medicines and traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions for the treatment of new crown drugs, and Lianhua Qing plague is within the scope of screening.
According to The Hebei News Network, in 2015, the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases, led by Academician Zhong Nanshan, signed a strategic cooperation with the Shijiazhuang Biomedical Academician Workstation led by Academician Wu Yiling to carry out the study of the antiviral and immunomodulatory mechanism of Lianhua Qingyi series products in common and new major respiratory viruses, and the clinical efficacy and safety clinical trials of Lianhua Qingpeng granules in the treatment of sudden viral infections.
The strong connections of academicians have become the characteristic "label" of Yiling Pharmaceutical in the circle.
"Anyone who has been to Yiling Pharmaceutical Industry should be impressed by the 'Academician Building', which displays photos of about 30 academicians who cooperated." A person in the Chinese medicine industry recalled the experience of Yiling Pharmaceutical, "And not only in the field of traditional Chinese medicine, which pharmaceutical company in China can have such a strong 'academician team'?" ”
Although Yiling Pharmaceutical has not announced the list of all cooperative academicians. However, public information shows that the Shijiazhuang Biomedical Academician Workstation built by Yiling Pharmaceutical was listed in 2012, and by 2015, more than 20 academicians in the biomedical field of the two academies, such as Fan Daiming, Zhong Nanshan, Yang Shengli, Zhang Boli, Yang Baofeng, Gao Runlin, and Zhang Yun, had signed contracts to enter the station and establish an academician expert committee.
In the early days of the new crown epidemic, not only Zhong Nanshan was optimistic about Lianhua Qingpi, academician Zhang Boli and academician Li Lanjuan became participants in the clinical trial of Lianhua Qingxiao. On February 2, 2020, when the research on the new crown drug began, the clinical trial of Lianhua Qingyi capsules has been carried out simultaneously in 23 hospitals across the country.
The efficacy of Lianhua Qingyi capsules has been recognized as superior to ordinary new crown Chinese medicine. At a press conference held in Wuhan on March 23, 2020, Yu Yanhong, secretary of the Party Group of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, introduced that the "three medicines and three parties" with obvious curative effects have been screened out, such as Jinhua Qinggan granules, Lianhua Qingyi capsules, Hebijing injection and lung detoxification soup, wet septic poison formula, and Xuan lung septic poison formula.
On April 14, 2020, all of the above-mentioned "three drugs" were approved by the State Food and Drug Administration to include the treatment of new coronary pneumonia in the new prescription drug indications of the "three drugs". At that time, as the only over-the-counter drug among them, Lianhua Qing plague capsules sold out of the dust and quickly ran out of stock in pharmacies in many parts of the country.
The academic system constructed by Wu Yiling
On April 17, 2022, the day after the "Wang Sicong Weibo Storm", Wu Yiling was supposed to appear in the live broadcast of the "China Medical Development Conference" held in Beijing at 9 a.m. to share the relevant content of "Network Disease Research and Translational Medicine", but public information showed that Wu's sharing was temporarily cancelled on the same day.
On the evening of April 19, Wang Sicong's Weibo page showed that "the user is currently in a state of silence because of violations of relevant laws and regulations." ”
At present, the doubts about the treatment of new crown pneumonia caused by this storm are still fermenting. From whether WHO recognizes Lianhua Qingpeng in the end, it has developed to question the clinical trial data of Lianhua Qingpeng.
In May 2020, the results of a multi-center randomized controlled clinical trial of Lianhua Qing plague, involving several academicians, were published in the journal Phytomedicine, which randomly divided 284 patients with new coronary pneumonia into two groups, both of which received conventional treatment, one of which also took Lianhua Qing plague capsules. It was concluded that the combination of Lianhua Qingxiao capsules and conventional treatment can significantly shorten the recovery time of patients with new coronary pneumonia and effectively alleviate clinical symptoms.
One of the Achilles heels of this clinical trial is that it is not double-blind. "That is, patients know what drug they are taking in the trial, and for many drug clinical trials, this will lead to the results that the experimenter expects." Li Tianquan analysis.
Zhong Nanshan also responded that considering the urgency of epidemic prevention and control, it is impossible to double-blind, and after discussion, the expert group decided to use an objective randomized parallel control trial design under limited conditions. A complete evaluation of the efficacy of Lianhua Qing plague in the treatment of COVID-19 requires larger double-blind randomized clinical trials in the future.
According to the public introduction of Ling Pharmaceutical, a series of basic and clinical research has been carried out around lianhua qing plague anti-new crown pneumonia, and 35 experimental and clinical research papers have been published so far, including 15 SCI. However, no data from large-scale double-blind randomized clinical trials have been made public.
In December 2015, Lianhua Qingyi capsules were approved to enter the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Phase II clinical study, and as of press time, the results of the clinical trial have not been announced.
"There will also be some traditional herbs approved in Europe that do not need to be clinically tested." Li Tianquan believes that China can also consider dividing Chinese medicine into modern medicine and traditional medicine, and modern medicine must be verified by randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trials, while traditional medicine is understandable not to do clinical trials, but such products may be restricted in medical insurance payment and financial procurement.
Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular exclusive Traditional Chinese medicine products were once the trump card of Ling Pharmaceutical. According to its 2019 annual report, the revenue of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular products accounted for 53.15% of the total revenue, and the revenue of anti-cold products accounted for only 29.24%.
Wu Yiling also enhanced the strength of the "trump card" through research cooperation with academicians. For example, the clinical research of Qiqi Qiangxin Capsule was completed in cooperation with Academician Gao Runlin of Fuwai Hospital and Academician Zhang Boli of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine; the technical transformation project of Ginseng Song Yangxin Capsule cooperated with Academician Yang Baofeng and Academician Yao Xinsheng; and the "Mechanism Study on the Intervention of Fragile Plaques by Tongluo Drugs" carried out in cooperation with Academician Zhang Yun of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University also corresponds to the product Macaroni Capsule.
The research and development of these drugs is inseparable from Wu Yiling's self-created network disease theory system, according to which Ling Pharmaceutical has developed 10 national patented new drugs and carried out a number of clinical studies to confirm the efficacy of tongluo drugs in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, tumors, influenza and other diseases.
Wu Yiling also simultaneously founded a new discipline of traditional Chinese medicine network disease, edited monographs such as "Network Disease", "Context Theory", "Qi Network Theory" and other monographs, and the textbook of "Network Disease" was opened in more than 40 higher medical colleges, training more than 100 doctoral masters and postdoctoral fellows.
"Being able to become a textbook will naturally be recognized by more clinicians and provide more basis for their subsequent prescriptions." The above-mentioned chinese medicine industry insiders said. At present, the country has established three major national secondary societies of network disease and 28 provinces and cities network disease special committees, forming a team of tens of thousands of network disease research experts.
In 2019, wu Yiling led the team to complete the project "Construction of Traditional Chinese Medicine Vein Theory and Its Guidance for the Prevention and Treatment of Microangiopathy", which won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and was also the only project in the medical field that entered the first prize list that year.
From 2018 to 2020, the R&D expenses of Yiling Pharmaceutical Company were 317 million yuan, 391 million yuan and 654 million yuan respectively, accounting for 6.58%, 6.71% and 7.45% of the revenue of each period, respectively.
This includes investment in the research and development of chemical drugs and biological drugs. Its relevant person in charge introduced to the "Finance and Economics Big Health" that in the medium and long term, the company hopes that the chemical and biological drug sector will form a product group dominated by a class of innovative drugs, improved new drugs and high-end generic drugs.
In the first half of 2021, Yiling Pharmaceutical's R&D investment reached 360 million yuan, accounting for 6.1% of revenue. "In the field of traditional Chinese medicine, Yiling Pharmaceutical is already relatively willing to spend money on clinical research." The above-mentioned Chinese medicine industry insiders pointed out that attaching importance to academic investment is also a major feature of Yiling Pharmaceutical, one is academic research and development, and the other is academic promotion.
The academic promotion expenditure of Ling Pharmaceutical is more reflected in the sales cost. In 2020 and the first half of 2021, the company's sales expenses accounted for about 35% of total revenue. Among the sales expenses, marketing activity fees, promotion and office expenses account for more than 60%. Although Yiling Pharmaceutical did not explain the specific direction of marketing activity fees and promotion fees, it can still be found from the annual report that such expenses may be mainly used for academic conferences.
The company's 2020 annual report mentioned that "promoters use various forms of academic conferences to promote the theory of network disease and the characteristic advantages of patented products" "At present, the company has established an academic marketing promotion network covering the national market, and the products have formed large-scale sales in more than 100,000 medical terminals and more than 300,000 pharmacy terminals nationwide.".
This even directly affects the company's profit level, from the financial data of the past five years, the company's product comprehensive gross profit margin has been stable at about 65% for a long time, higher than the median value of peer listed companies, which shows that its product competitiveness is strong. However, at the same time, the net profit margin of Yiling Pharmaceutical has always hovered between 10% and 15%, showing a phenomenon of high gross profit margin and low net profit margin.
Donate to the world
After the outbreak of the epidemic, a large donation of a batch of Lianhua Qing plague has almost become the standard action of Ling Pharmaceutical in the past two years.
Lianhua Qingpeng capsules first went out of the circle, that is, appeared in the "health package" received by international students, and like the masks that were in demand at that time, Lianhua Qingpeng almost became the standard for Chinese embassies and consulates abroad to issue "health gift packages".
By May 2020, Yiling Pharmaceutical has donated more than 3.4 million yuan of Lianhua Qingyi capsules to Italy, Iraq, Bangladesh, Malaysia and other countries through the Red Cross Society of China.
This also helped Lianhua Qingfeng quickly open up the international market, and as of January 2022, Yiling Pharmaceutical has been approved for listing in seven african countries. Globally, Lianhua Qingpeng has obtained registration approvals or import licenses in 27 countries and regions such as Russia, Canada, Indonesia, and Kuwait.
However, the sales volume after approval is not much, and Yiling Pharmaceutical has publicly introduced that the overseas sales of Lianhua Qingpeng capsules are mainly in Southeast Asia, and the overseas sales in 2020 are less than 100 million yuan.
"The key is to create brand popularity through overseas donations." According to the above-mentioned people in the traditional Chinese medicine industry, on the ability to create momentum, buchang pharmaceutical and Tasly, which are called "troikas" by Yiling Pharmaceutical and Yiling Pharmaceutical, are not as good as it.
On April 8, 2022, the Red Cross Society of China and Yiling Pharmaceutical co-ordinated Yiling Pharmaceutical donated more than 50 million yuan worth of Lianhua Qingxiao capsules to Shanghai to help prevent and control the new crown pneumonia epidemic in Shanghai. Previously, Yiling Pharmaceutical has donated 10 million yuan worth of Lianhua Qingyi capsules to Shanghai through the Red Cross Society of China, which is the second batch of donations that should be urgently needed for local prevention and control.
In addition to Shanghai, in 2022, Yiling Pharmaceutical has donated a Hong Kong version of Lianhua Qingpeng capsules worth 7.8 million yuan to Hong Kong, and more than 5 million yuan worth of Lianhua Qingxiao capsules, Lianhua cough tablets and Lianhua respiratory health packages worth more than 5 million yuan to Jilin.
However, the revenue and profit growth rate of Yiling Pharmaceutical has slowed down significantly. In the first three quarters of 2021, the company's revenue and net profit growth rates were 26% and 20%, respectively, which were significantly lower than the growth rates of 51% and 101% in 2020. This may mean that the sales of Lianhua Qing plague began to gradually return to normal after experiencing the outbreak.
Whether this storm will eventually end quietly or promote changes in traditional Chinese medicine remains to be seen.
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