<div id="readability-page-1">Hong Kong-listed mainland Chinese pharmaceutical companies are on track to deliver full-year profits, as surging drug sales and lucrative out-licensing deals with global partners start to pay off after years of research and development outlay. “Despite domestic challenges, particularly drug pricing pressure, the earnings performance of innovative drugs should still fare well in China in 2025,” said Tony Ren, head of Asia Healthcare Research at Macquarie Capital. Innovent Biologics, the first Chinese company cleared to sell a drug for weight loss and diabetes, is expected to post its first full-year profit since going public – 984 million yuan (US$143.5 million) in 2025 – compared with a loss of 94.63 million yuan in 2024, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue at Innovent, best known for its cancer treatment drug development, jumped about 45 per cent in 2025 to roughly 11.9 billion yuan, marking a “historic milestone”, the company said in a filing on February 4. The company, which launched six new products last year, releases its earnings release in late March.  Founded in 2011, Innovent was one of the first batch of firms to go public in 2018 under a new Hong Kong listing rule that let pre-revenue and loss-making drug and medical device developers raise capital. Its diabetes and obesity drug mazdutide could bring in about 2.4 billion yuan this year, along with nearly 2.7 billion yuan in collaboration revenue from deals with Takeda and Eli Lilly, said Zhang Jialin, Nomura’s head of China healthcare research, in a note. BeOne, formerly known as BeiGene and rebranded in 2024 amid US-China geopolitical tensions, posted its first full-year profit since it was founded in 2010. The oncology drug developer reported a net profit of US$286.93 million, compared with a net loss of US$644.79 million a year earlier, according to an exchange filing on Thursday. The profit was due to the runaway global success of its blood cancer drug Brukinsa, which raked in US$3.9 billion in sales, including US$2.8 billion in the US alone, eclipsing AstraZeneca’s Calquence, which generated US$3.5 billion, according to a Macquarie Capital report on Friday. Both Innovent and BeOne were among the top performers in turning novel drug candidates into real-world treatments and commercial products, according to a new index gauging China’s pharmaceutical innovation compiled by US consultancy SAI MedPartners and its unit Idea Pharma in December. Other notable names on the list include Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals and Hansoh Pharma. Nomura’s Zhang expects Hengrui, China’s largest listed drug maker by market value, to report a 32 per cent jump in fourth-quarter net profit to 2.3 billion yuan. For full-year 2026, he predicted a 30 per cent jump in net profit to 11.2 billion yuan, nearly 13 per cent above Bloomberg estimates. The growth was expected to be driven by newly launched drugs and license fees from a partnership with British multinational GSK for an experimental pill for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a long-term lung illness that makes it difficult to breathe, Zhang said. Hengrui launched seven new drugs in China last year, including trastuzumab rezetecan, the first antibody-drug conjugate developed on the mainland and approved in the country for lung cancer patients, and SHR2554, an oral pill for blood cancer patients. Nomura forecast Hansoh’s revenues would grow 27 per cent year on year to about 7.3 billion yuan in the second half of 2025, slightly above Bloomberg estimates. The wave of profits comes as several Chinese drug makers out-license their early-stage drugs to global pharmaceutical behemoths in search of new growth engines ahead of looming patent expiries on old blockbusters, with the deal flow showing no sign of cooling. On Tuesday, Hangzhou Sciwind Biosciences granted Pfizer exclusive rights to sell its new GLP‑1 injection ecnoglutide in mainland China, in return for up to US$495 million in upfront, regulatory and sales milestone payments. “Partnering with Chinese biopharma is no longer opportunistic and is now an integral part of the global … research and development strategy,” said Macquarie’s Ren. “Investors appear to be showing a keen interest in China healthcare and view it as a must-own sector. Some hedge funds are deploying capital from Japan to China.”</div>

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<p>Hong Kong-listed Chinese pharmaceutical companies are poised for profitability due to rising drug sales and lucrative licensing deals. Innovent Biologics expects its first full-year profit of 984 million yuan in 2025, driven by a 45% revenue increase. BeOne reported a net profit of US$286.93 million, fueled by its successful blood cancer drug Brukinsa. Other firms like Jiangsu Hengrui and Hansoh Pharma are also projected to see significant profit growth. The trend of out-licensing early-stage drugs to global firms is strengthening, with investors increasingly interested in China's healthcare sector.</p>

Hong Kong-listed Chinese drug firms set to turn corner on rising sales, deals