① At a time when the CRO circuit is “cold,” Sunshine Nuohe achieved an increase in performance in the first half of the year. Chairman Li Qian said that 80% of customers are traditional domestic pharmaceutical companies with stable cash flow and product pipeline demand; ② Sunshine Nuohe's R&D targets are mainly generic drugs, supplemented by innovative drugs. With the implementation of policies such as drug consistency evaluation and volume procurement, Sunshine Nuohe faces the risk of declining performance.
“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, September 11 (Reporter Zheng Bingxun) At a time when the CRO circuit is generally “cold,” the CRO company for pre-clinical and clinical research and development services, achieved performance growth in the first half of 2024, achieving revenue growth of 0.563 billion yuan, an increase of 22.08% year on year, and net profit of 0.149 billion yuan to mother, an increase of 25.91% year on year. 688621.SH
In this regard, at the performance briefing held on the 11th, Chairman Li Qian of Sunshine Nuohe told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that the increase in performance was mainly due to a large increase in revenue from clinical trials and bioanalysis services. During the reporting period, the sector's service revenue was 0.217 billion yuan, an increase of 50.28% over the previous year, accounting for 38.47% of total revenue.
Li Qian also revealed that 80% of Sunshine Nuohe's customer structure belongs to traditional domestic medium and large pharmaceutical companies. Through early cooperation, Sunshine Nuohe has established customer stickiness with these pharmaceutical companies, and these customers have the need for stable cash flow and product pipeline layout.
During the reporting period, Sunshine Nuohe invested a total of 69.0931 million yuan in R&D, an increase of 29.48% over the previous year. The number of R&D personnel was 1,163, an increase of 17.83% over the previous year.
According to data, Sunshine Nuohe's main business covers comprehensive R&D services for innovative drug development, generic drug development and consistency evaluation. The services mainly include drug discovery, pharmacological efficacy, pharmaceutical research, clinical research and bioanalysis. All services are customized services.
Li Qian revealed that the advantages of Yangguang Nuo and CRO services focus on indications in the treatment fields of endocrinology, analgesia, respiratory, oncology, cardiovascular, urinary system, medicine and aesthetics.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to carrying out CRO services for designated projects selected by customers, Sunshine Nuohe also independently selects R&D targets and develops independent projects. Sunshine Nuohe invests its own R&D expenses in the early stages, recommends independent projects to customers after development reaches a certain stage, and then continues to provide R&D services according to customer requests.
According to Li Qian, the current independent projects include innovative drugs, improved new drugs, and generic drugs. In the first half of 2024, Sunshine Nuo launched more than 117 new projects, totaling more than 450. Among them, out of the projects that Sunshine Nuohe participated in R&D and independent research and development, 8 new drug projects have passed NMPA approval and entered clinical trials, and 70 drug applications have been accepted for marketing registration.
However, it should be pointed out that at this stage, Sunshine Nuohe's research and development targets are still mainly generic drugs, and innovative drugs are in a supporting position. Beginning in 2016, policies such as drug consistency evaluation and volume procurement have been implemented at the national level, leading to a drop in the prices of some drugs, which in turn caused pharmaceutical companies to abandon the development of some generic drugs.
This has brought uncertainty to the continued growth of Sunshine Nuohe's performance. “There is a risk that due to a slowdown or decrease in the growth of investment in drug research and development, the scale of the company's research services will decrease and business performance will decline.”
“Affected by changes in the market environment, the company has strengthened its commercial strength in the clinical business of innovative drugs, and the amount of clinical orders for innovative drugs has increased significantly.” Li Qian revealed at the performance conference that Sunshine Nuohe is currently developing more than 10 innovative drugs, and is currently focusing on peptides and small nucleic acid drugs.
Among innovative drugs, rapid development progress includes “STC007 injection” and “STC008 injection.” Among them, STC007 has entered phase II clinical trials, mainly treating moderate to severe itching (CKD-ap) and post-operative pain caused by chronic kidney disease in adults undergoing hemodialysis.
The “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter asked how much was the revenue of generic drugs and innovative drugs in the CRO business of Li Qian in the first half of the year. The other party did not answer this.