Company profile
Yao Ming Juno, a leading clinical and preclinical cell therapy company in China, was founded in February 2016 by Juno, a leading global cell therapy company, and Shanghai Yaoming, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wuxi Apptec (2359 HK). At present, the product pipeline includes seven products: Relma-cel for potential excellent autologous CAR-T therapy targeting CD19 antigen, JWCAR129 for autologous CAR-T targeting BCMA, JWATM203 for potential excellent autologous TCRmT cell therapy targeting AFP for HCC, and JWATM204, a new autologous T cell therapy candidate product targeting GPC3.
Sino-Thai viewpoint
Relma-cel is a potentially excellent anti-CD19 CAR-T product: the company's main candidate product, Relma-cel, is a potentially excellent autologous CAR-T product for the treatment of all kinds of B-cell malignant tumors, and has the potential to become an excellent third-line therapy for a variety of hematological cancers in China in the future. Relma-cel is mainly targeted at CD19 antigens, while CD19 antigens are widely distributed in many types of B-cell hematological cancers, including DLBCL, FL, MCL and CLL. The related indications belong to a wider cancer category, B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). According to Frost Sullivan, the Chinese NHL market is estimated to have about 514000 patients in 2020 and is expected to increase to about 730000 patients by 2030. Relma-cel may be safer and have the same efficacy as other anti-CD19 CAR-T products currently approved around the world. Data as of June 17, 2020 showed that the best ORR and CRR produced by Relma-cel were 75.9% and 51.7%, respectively. No more than 5.1% of patients produced sCRS or sNT, and there was no treatment-related death. The State Drug Administration has accepted and examined the new drug application of Relma-cel for the third-line therapy of DLBCL in June 2020, and in September 2020, the State Drug Administration granted Relma-cel the priority qualification for new drug application and the breakthrough therapy identification of Relma-cel in the treatment of FL.
In terms of operating results: in 2018, 2019 and the first six months of 2020, the company incurred losses of 270 million yuan, 630 million yuan and 650 million yuan respectively, and R & D expenditure of 75.99 million yuan, 140 million yuan and 82.27 million yuan respectively; net operating cash outflow was 110 million yuan, 190 million yuan and 110 million yuan respectively.
Valuation: based on 380 million shares after the global public offering, the company's market capitalization is HK $75-9 billion.
As the company has not yet made a profit, the PE valuation method is not applicable. This time the price stabilizer is Goldman Sachs Group, a total of 9 projects this year, the first day of performance 7 up and 2 down. In terms of cornerstone, 10 investors, including Hillhouse, were introduced and subscribed for a total of $150 million. We believe that the company's flagship product, Relma-cel, has the opportunity to become the first biological product CAR-T cell therapy in China to be approved, and has a huge market potential after commercialization. To sum up, it is rated as "purchase" with 79 points.
Risk hints: (1) the risk of significantly increased competition in the CAR-T treatment market, (2) the company is in a loss, the revenue is not stable, (3) the R & D progress is lower than expected, and the result is uncertain.