Wen | Zhao Guangli, a reporter for China Science Daily
Editor| He Tao
"What do you think of the professor of Nanda who earns nearly 400 million yuan a year by selling 'knockout mice'?" On April 15, the issue sparked a heated discussion as soon as it was known. As of April 21, the question had received nearly 400 answers and more than 4.3 million views.
The question comes from a report on the Securities Times network titled "He, a professor at Nanjing University, earns 400 million yuan by selling mice a year and is about to harvest an IPO." According to reports, on April 12, Jiangsu Jicui Yaokang Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Yaokang Biotechnology), which will soon land on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, began to apply for subscription, and the proposed public offering of 50 million shares is expected to raise a total of 1.127 billion yuan. The founder of Yaokang Biology is Gao Xiang, a professor at Nanjing University.
"The hot search on Yaokang Biology surprised me a bit." Gao Xiang responded to China Science News on April 19, saying: "Thank you for your concern for Yaokang Biology, and welcome everyone to read our prospectus and have a more accurate understanding of Yaokang Biologics' R&D information and operating figures." ”
Earn 400 million a year?
Gao Xiang: Profit in 2021 is 124 million
For the rumored "annual earnings of 400 million" on the hot search, Gao Xiang responded: "The company's revenue of nearly 400 million (yuan) in 2021 is correct, but the profit is only 124 million (yuan). ”
The reporter checked the company's prospectus and learned that the revenue of Yaokang Bio in 2021 was indeed nearly 400 million yuan, but the net profit attributable to the shareholders of the parent company was nearly 125 million yuan, and the non-net profit was 77.56 million yuan.
At the same time, Gao Xiang said that the company's revenue also comes from different business segments, "the commercialization of mouse strain sales is only part of the company's revenue, the company's functional pharmacy service sector revenue growth rate is relatively fast."
This is also explained in the prospectus: during the reporting period, the main business composition of Yaokang Biology was divided into 5 items, namely "commercialized mouse model sales", "customized breeding business", "functional efficacy business", "model customization business" and "agent import and export and others". The content shows that the sales of experimental animal mouse models are the main business of Yaokang Biology, and the proportion of revenue in the past 3 years (from 2018 to June 2021) has been stable at about 60%.
The main business income of Yaokang Bio since 2018, screenshot from the prospectus of Yaokang Bio
After clarifying the relevant information, Gao Xiang further expressed the hope that the public will pay more attention to the value and development prospects of the entire experimental mouse model to the pharmaceutical industry when paying attention to the company's revenue or profitability.
"We hope that everyone will care about the leading and supporting role of scientific development in this field in the development of the big health industry, and understand why animal models have such a great impact on basic research and new drug research and development, rather than just seeing the word 'making money'." Gao Xiang told China Science Daily.
Sell 600,000 a year!
How did lab mice become a business?
According to the prospectus of Yaokang Biologics, the company's sales of mouse models in the past year is about 600,000, mainly involving immunodeficient mice, humanized mice and mouse disease models such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, and Alzheimer's disease that can be used for tumor efficacy research; the company also serves more than 1,000 customers, covering Tsinghua, Peking University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, West China Hospital and other domestic first-class scientific research institutes and top three hospitals, as well as well-known innovative pharmaceutical companies and CRO (pharmaceutical research and development contract outsourcing service agencies) research and development enterprises at home and abroad.
The production of experimental mice into a high-end business, behind which is inseparable from the scientific function of experimental mice.
First of all, the rapid development of human life sciences, experimental mice are indispensable.
Experimental animals are the cornerstone of the development of modern life science research and play the role of human substitutes; and mice are the second mammals after humans to complete whole genome sequencing, and their genomes are highly homologous to humans, and the regulatory mechanisms of physiological biochemistry and growth and development are basically consistent with humans. At the same time, mice also have the characteristics of strong reproductive ability, short generation cycle and low feeding cost, so it has become the most widely used experimental animal.
Secondly, with the rapid development of genetic engineering technology, especially the widespread application of gene editing technology represented by CRISPR/Cas9 in recent years, it has become possible to create mouse models on a large scale, so that specific physiological and pathological characteristics of humans can be more accurately simulated.
Therefore, mouse models have an irreplaceable role in elucidating the laws of life mechanism, disease diagnosis and treatment, and new drug creation and research and development.
Developed countries in Europe and the United States have vigorously supported the mutant mouse model as a strategic resource for national scientific and technological development, and the United States and the European Union have established government-supported national mouse resource centers decades ago. The research and industrialization of mouse models of experimental animals in mainland China have also achieved rapid development.
Using "mouse+China" or "mouse+USA" to search for the number of related papers in the world's most important biomedical database Pubmed, the reporter of China Science Daily found that the number of papers published by Chinese scientists grew rapidly from 620 in 2000 to 32860 in 2020, while the number of papers by American scientists in the same period was 14075 and 20196, respectively.
In addition, the explosive growth of the mainland biomedical industry in recent years has also rapidly expanded the demand for animal model markets.
The prospectus of Yaokang Bio shows that as the most important category of laboratory animal models, rodent laboratory animals show a rapid growth trend in the domestic product and related services market.
Mice are the most dominant category of rodents, accounting for 85%. The market size in 2019 is 2.8 billion yuan, and it is expected that the market size will reach 8.4 billion yuan by 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of about 24.4%; by 2030, the overall market size of domestic laboratory mouse products and services will reach 23.6 billion yuan.
Who is Gao Xiang?
In some reports circulating, the media has greatly exaggerated the identity of Gao Xiang, the founder of Yaokang Biology, as a "returnee". The reporter inquired about the information and learned that Gao Xiang studied at Nanjing University as an undergraduate and studied for a master's degree in the Department of Biochemistry of Nanjing University.
In 1989, Gao Xiang studied at Thomas Jefferson University in the United States and obtained a doctorate in developmental biology and anatomy. Later, from 1994 to 1997, Gao Xiang conducted postdoctoral research at the Roche Institute for Molecular Biology in the United States and the Jackson Laboratory in the United States, focusing on genetics and functional genomics. From 1997 to 2000, he was a research assistant at the Center for Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina. In March 2000, Gao Xiang returned to China full-time and became a professor at Nanjing University.
Gao Xiang Source: Nanjing University
“...... Almost all the important disciplines in the field of life sciences have been dabbled in. His extensive experience and broad knowledge have enabled him to form his own unique advantage in the study of model animals. The Nanjing University Daily (No. 910) described him in a special report on Gao Xiang. In this article, Gao Xiang also said to himself: "For me, it is important to do it step by step and down-to-earth. ”
After Gao Xiang returned to China, he established the Institute of Model Animals of the Discipline Special Zone of Nanjing University and the National Genetic Engineering Mouse Resource Bank, and established the first conditional gene exclusion mouse strain in China.
Based on his work in the field of mouse model research and development and research, Gao Xiang was appointed as the Jiang Scholar Distinguished Professor of the Ministry of Education, funded by the National Science Foundation for Outstanding Youth, and won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2016.
From August 2009 to December 2018, Gao Xiang served as the dean of Nanjing University-Nanjing Institute of Biomedicine (Institute of Biology), which is one of the business platforms for Nanjing University to engage in business activities abroad.
On December 31, 2018, nanjing university stopped operating after rectification according to the rectification guidance of the Central Inspection Group and the relevant instructions of the Ministry of Education.
In order to ensure the proper placement of the staff of the Institute of Biology and continue to revitalize and utilize the relevant assets, Yaokang Bio accepted 2,612 mouse strains and related intellectual property rights owned by the Institute of Biology at a market price of 16.7365 million yuan.
According to the prospectus, according to the written confirmation of Nanjing University and the Institute of Biology, the mouse strain transaction, equipment and facility leasing or transfer, and business cooperation transactions between the Institute of Biology and Yaokang Biology have fulfilled the relevant decision-making and approval procedures, in line with the relevant provisions of Nanjing University and the Institute of Biology; Nanjing University has no objection to the final transaction price, nor has it found any situation leading to the loss of state-owned assets.
Benefiting from national policies, rapid development of the industry, basic technological innovation in the field of gene editing, the company's own R&D investment and sales expansion, gaoxiang team's entrepreneurial achievements exceeded the initial expectations of all parties.
According to the prospectus, in this case, in order to thank and give back to Nanjing University and the Institute of Biology, in April 2021, Gao Xiang signed an agreement with the Institute of Biology to voluntarily increase the amount of payment to 70 million yuan, that is, on the basis of the consideration of 16.7365 million yuan for 2612 mouse strains and related intellectual property rights that the company had completed in accordance with the legal procedures in the early stage, the individual voluntarily paid an additional installment of 53.2635 million yuan.
At the same time, Gao Xiang signed an agreement with Nanjing University to voluntarily pay cash donations and share income rights in installments totaling not less than 35 million yuan.
"It's about not forgetting your original intentions." Gao Xiang told reporters: "We come from the scientific research community, so we will always have a huge interest in scientific research, and will continue to support scientific and technological exploration, including basic research and applied research and development."