Watson Bio's revenue increased by more than 35% in the first three quarters of the 13-valent pneumonia conjugate vaccine batch issuance increased significantly

Watson Bio (300142) released the third quarter report of 2021 on the evening of October 28, and achieved operating income of 2.129 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2021, an increase of 35.90% year-on-year; net profit of 364 million yuan, a slight decline year-on-year.

Watson Bio said that the revenue growth is mainly due to the overall operating conditions in the first three quarters to maintain a good trend, and the sales volume of 13-valent pneumonia conjugate vaccines and independent vaccine products continued to grow steadily. The decline in net profit, on the one hand, actively promote the research and development progress of products under development and increase investment in research and development; on the other hand, in order to achieve the rapid transformation of vaccine products from research and development to products, we will make every effort to promote the industrialization layout of construction in Yuxi and Beijing, resulting in more funds occupied in the construction of projects.

In terms of "net cash flow from operating activities", Watson Bio performed well. According to the third quarterly report, the net cash flow generated by Watson Bio's operating activities in the first three quarters was about 265 million yuan, an increase of about 152 million yuan over the same period of the previous year, an increase of 135.14% year-on-year.

Innovative vaccine research and development continues to advance

According to incomplete market statistics, since the listing of the Watson Biological 13-valent pneumonia conjugate vaccine, as of September 30, 2021, it has cumulatively issued 8.5 million doses (bottles), of which the number of approved doses (bottles) in the first three quarters of this year reached 4.03 million doses (bottles), an increase of 21.75% year-on-year, accounting for 15% of the company's total product batch issuance.

Industry insiders predict that the sales of Watson Bio's 13-valent pneumonia conjugate vaccine are expected to exceed 10 billion yuan from 2023 to 2024, becoming a new growth pole for the high-quality development of Watson's biomedicine and big health industry.

While the harvest of the 13-valent pneumonia conjugate vaccine was successful, Watson Biotech's research and development of other drugs has also made new progress. Specifically, in July this year, Watson Biological Bivalent HPV Vaccine was included in the list of priority review varieties; at the same time, the nine-valent HPV vaccine is also carrying out the preliminary preparations for phase III clinical research; the quadrivalent flow brain conjugate vaccine released in October entered phase III clinical trials, which also makes Watson Biology add another member in the field of flow brain vaccines.

Continue to deepen the field of mRNA

MRNA vaccine has a high technical threshold, representing the most cutting-edge technology in vaccine research and development, and is the fastest technical route to respond to new and sudden infectious diseases.

Watson Bio continues to deepen the mRNA field and joins hands with Blue Magpie Bio. In August this year, the two sides signed the "Respiratory Syncytial Virus mRNA Vaccine Product Development and Commercialization Cooperation Agreement".

According to public information, Blue Magpie Has been focusing on mRNA drug research and development since its inception, with antigen design, mRNA sequence depth optimization, mRNA whole process and detection method, mature LNP encapsulation process, and has independent research and development capabilities in key raw excipients of mRNA drugs such as modified nucleotides, hat analogues, enzymes, and cationic lipids.

Industry insiders pointed out that through the cooperation with Blue Magpie Biology for the development of new mRNA vaccines, Watson Biology can further expand the company's research and development product line, which is conducive to long-term development.

With the continuous research of mRNA vaccines, Watson Biotech has accumulated successful experience in vaccine research and development, clinical and industrialization in this field, and has also made new progress in clinical research and industrial construction of new crown mRNA vaccines. Since the signing of the Technology Development Cooperation Agreement between Watson Biologics and Aibo Biologics in May last year, the new crown mRNA vaccine has been in the international multi-center phase III clinical research stage. The progress is currently the fastest in China.

At the same time as the release of the third quarterly report, Watson Bio announced that it will adjust the company's board of directors seats, and there will be 2 directors served by employee representatives on the board of directors, and the staff directors will be democratically elected by the company's employee congress. Watson Bio said that this adjustment is an important embodiment of the continuous regulation of the governance structure, aiming to allow the board of directors to better play a leading core role in corporate governance.