China Net Finance, February 18 (Reporter Zhang Zengyan) Recently, Yahong Pharmaceutical announced that due to the failure of the relevant studies to reach the main study endpoints, the company decided to terminate the further development of the core product Weishike APL-1202 in combination with chemotherapy perfusion in related indications.
According to relevant information, VPL-1202 is the main ** urological disease. The drug is the world's first oral, reversible Metap2 inhibitor to enter a pivotal phase III clinical trial in the field of anti-oncology, and the first oral targeted** drug for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) to enter a pivotal phase III clinical trial in the world, and is expected to fill the market gap in related fields.
By the end of 2023, the pivotal clinical trial of VPL-1202 in combination with chemoperfusion and the use of **chemoperfusion** for medium- and high-risk NMIBC has accumulated approximately 13 billion yuan. However, Yahong Pharmaceutical said in the announcement that in accordance with the relevant accounting standards and the company's accounting policies, the above-mentioned R&D expenses have been included in the profit and loss of the corresponding accounting period when they occur, and will not have a significant impact on the company's current performance.
In addition to the above studies, there are two other studies related to VISKE APL-1202. Among them, the phase clinical trial of single-agent **untreated intermediate-risk NMIBC is in the clinical enrollment stage; The Phase II clinical trial of oral combination with tislelizumab as a neoadjuvant adjuvant for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) has completed enrollment of all subjects, and top-line data is expected to be read out in the third quarter of 2024.
At the same time as terminating the clinical trials of core products, Yahong Pharmaceutical also released the company's performance forecast for 2023. According to the announcement, Yahong Pharmaceutical expects to achieve operating income of 1279 in 2023060,000 to 1526620,000 yuan, an increase over the same period last year; Net profit loss of 37.1 billion to 44.3 billion yuan, deducting a non-net profit loss of 40.1 billion to 47.9 billion yuan.
Yahong Pharmaceutical said that the company's operating income in 2023 is mainly due to the sales revenue generated by Dipaite and Ouyubi in the fourth quarter of 2023 and the license fee income generated by the company's external licensing data, and other core products are still under development; R&D expenses are expected to increase to 33.7 billion - 40.2 billion yuan, the company's investment income from using part of the temporarily idle raised funds for cash management decreased. In addition, the company will continue to invest in large-scale R&D in the next few years, and R&D expenses will continue to be at a high level, and losses are expected to persist and the accumulated uncovered losses may continue to expand in the short term.
The loss-making Yahong Pharmaceutical's stock price has also been in a state of "breaking" for a long time. According to the data, Yahong Pharmaceutical landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board on January 10, 2022, with an issue price of 2298 yuan shares, the ** price on the last trading day before the Spring Festival is 5$4 shares.
In order to enhance investor confidence, Yahong Pharmaceutical plans to use the over-raised funds to repurchase the company's shares, which will be used for equity incentives or employee stock ownership plans, with a total repurchase fund of about 0500 million to 100 million yuan, repurchase ** not more than 12$80 shares. As of February 8, Yahong Pharmaceutical has repurchased about 18280,000 shares, with a total amount of 99920,000 yuan.