"Star Market Daily" news on October 9th (Reporter Zheng Bingxun) Another company, peptide products driving strong performance.

On the evening of October 9th, the domestic leading peptide medicinal company Santenbio (688117.SH) disclosed the performance forecast for the first three quarters of 2024, becoming the second biopharmaceutical company on the Star Market to disclose the latest performance forecast after Notai Biological.

(The first three quarters forecast of the STAR Market: Peptide active pharmaceutical ingredients in high demand, Notai Biological achieves the highest net income increase of 181%)

It is worth noting that, similar to Notai Biological, Santenbio is not only expected to achieve performance growth, but also the reason for the performance increase is also due to the high demand for peptide products. The specific explanation given by Santenbio is "Peptide active pharmaceutical ingredients, formulation business and other sales revenues have shown significant year-on-year growth."

Driven by this, Santenbio is expected to achieve a net profit attributable to the parent of 50.0717 million yuan to 61.1987 million yuan in the first three quarters of 2024, an increase of 15.2755 million yuan to 26.4025 million yuan compared to the same period last year, a year-on-year growth of 43.90% to 75.88%. In the same period last year, Santenbio achieved a net profit attributable to the parent of 34.7962 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.79%.

In contrast, in the first half of this year, Santenbio achieved revenue of 0.199 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.44%, a net profit attributable to the parent of 21.7876 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.14%, showing a relatively impressive overall performance.

However, combining the above net income expectations for the first three quarters, Santen Biomedical's attributable net income for the third quarter of 2024 is expected to be at least 28.2841 million yuan, up to 39.4111 million yuan, far exceeding the sum of the previous two quarters, which is quite impressive.

The "Star Market Daily" reporter found that Santen Biomedical's sales of peptide products saw rapid growth in the third quarter, which can be traced back to a significant operating contract signed last month.

In mid to late September this year, Santen Biomedical disclosed that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Santen Pharma, had signed a "Product Purchase Contract" with a customer to supply GLP-1 peptide active pharmaceutical ingredients, with the contract amount up to 0.35 billion yuan. The term of the contract is from the date of agreement signing until December 31, 2025. Due to commercial confidentiality, Santen Biomedical did not disclose the customer's name, product specifications, and unit price for the undisclosed transaction.

It should be noted that in the full year of 2023, Santen Biomedical's revenue was 0.435 billion yuan. This also means that as long as this September-signed contract is successfully executed, the revenue pressure on Santen Biomedical for the remaining time of this year and even for the full year of 2025 will be greatly reduced.

In fact, Santen Biomedical itself has stated that "if the contract is successfully implemented, it will help improve the company's sustainable profitability and will have a positive impact on the company's business development and operation performance."

Perhaps seeing the development prospects of peptide products, Santen Biomedical also signed an overseas "Investment Cooperation Agreement" in September this year, planning to invest 30 million yuan and subscribe to 22.78% equity of Tanzania's Africa Bio Chem Co. Ltd. The aim is to expand the overseas market size of peptide products, covering multiple areas such as obstetrics, gynecology, immune system, cardiovascular, diabetes, obesity, and more.

As disclosed, Santen Biomedical's main business includes "Peptide Innovative Drug CDMO Service" and "Independent research and development, sales of peptide active pharmaceutical ingredients and formulation products."

Among them, in terms of peptide active pharmaceutical ingredients, as of the first half of 2024, Santen Biomedical has independently developed 19 varieties, with 14 domestically obtaining production approvals or activation filings, and 10 varieties internationally obtaining US DMF filings, including Liraglutide, Semaglutide, and more.

As for peptide formulation products, the products of Sanofi have been sold in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government in china, with domestic medical institutions as the main end customers.

Data shows that the global peptide drug market is developing rapidly, with the market size reaching $72.9 billion in 2022. At the same time, in recent years, the number of registered peptide active pharmaceutical ingredients in china has also grown rapidly. By the end of 2023, NMPA had approved a total of 80 peptide drugs for market launch, accounting for 43% of the total global number of approved peptide drugs for market launch.