Since entering the "nuclear medicine" industry in 2014, and successively acquiring Yunke Pharmaceutical, Shanghai Xinke, Yitai Pharmaceutical and Antico, as the only domestic A-share listed nuclear drug company, Dongcheng Pharmaceutical, the "second brother" of nuclear medicine, has made another move!
On February 20, Dongcheng Pharmaceutical announced that its subsidiary, Yantai Yitai Pharmaceutical, intends to purchase the 99MTC-GSA injection and GSA cold medicine box held by Rongcheng Medical for 85 million yuan in cash, and buy out and obtain all the rights, ownership and interests of the target product, including the rights, ownership and interests of the target product in all diagnostic, advanced fields and indications.
According to the announcement, 99MTC-GSA injection is a synthetic glycoprotein prepared by introducing galactose residues on human serum albumin, which is equivalent to natural sialic acid glycoprotein, and binds to ASGPR receptor (desialic acid glycoprotein receptor) into hepatocytes, which is suitable for quantitative analysis of whole liver and partial liver function, which is helpful for evaluating liver function before liver surgery, guiding the surgical plan and the impact of postoperative liver function on patients. At present, the product has completed the clinical trial and is in the preparatory stage before registration and marketing.
Judging from the information disclosed by Dongcheng Pharmaceutical, the company was founded in 1998 and is a relatively old heparin API manufacturer and chondroitin sulfate ** merchant in China, similar to most of its peers in the industry, with business all over the world. 2022 revenue 358.3 billion yuan, down 8 percent year-on-year41%, net profit attributable to the parent company 30.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10275%。
However, the difference of the company lies in the fact that when many API companies transformed into pharmaceuticals or CDMOs, the company transformed the layout of the nuclear drug industry chain in 2014, and has now completed the construction of the whole industrial chain layout from raw materials, research and development, clinical transformation, production and sales of nuclear medicine.
After 9 years of layout, Dongcheng Pharmaceutical has formed a "screening-diagnosis-** full coverage of radioactive drugs. According to the annual report, its existing products cover the mainstream nuclear medicine varieties in China, including the diagnostic positron drug 18F-FDG, the single-photon drug technetium [99MTC] labeled drug and other drugs Urea [14C] capsules, and also has a number of products such as Yunke Injection, Iodine [125I] Sealed Seed Source, Iodine [131I] Sodium Oral Liquid, etc.
Among them, in 2022, the company's key nuclear drug products such as the diagnostic positron drug 18F-FDG, Yunke injection, technetium-labeled related drugs, 131i oral liquid, and 125i sealed seed source will jointly create sales of more than 800 million yuan, but unfortunately, among these products, only one technetium-label-related drug has not experienced a decline in sales.
In the past 10 years since the transformation, Dongcheng Pharmaceutical has completed the construction of a relatively comprehensive industrial chain, and from the actions in recent years, the company will further consolidate its capabilities through cooperation and mergers and acquisitions. In 2022, Midu Biotech, a subsidiary of Dongcheng Pharmaceutical, acquired 100% of the equity of Xing Imaging LLC, a nuclear drug transformation and clinical trial imaging CRO company, for a transaction amount of US$30.2 million, strengthening the company's nuclear drug clinical imaging service capabilities.
In terms of R&D, a number of Dongcheng Pharmaceutical's research projects are about to enter the harvest period
*: Dongcheng Pharmaceutical's 2022 annual report.
In addition, including this transaction with Rongcheng Medical, the acquisition of product rights has actually been an expansion move of Dongcheng Pharmaceutical for many years. In January 2022, the subsidiary Antico entered into a cooperation agreement with imaginab, and Adico became the exclusive distributor of "Zirconium ZR 89 Crefmirlimab Berdoxam" in the authorized region, and obtained the rights and related data stipulated under the patent rights of imaginab, and then carried out the development, registration, manufacturing and sales of the target products in China.
In December 2022, Yantai Yitai Pharmaceutical, the above-mentioned subsidiary, also obtained Aprinoia Therapeutics Incand Suzhou Xinxu Pharmaceutical*** holds the clinical approval documents and R&D data for PET imaging diagnostic drug tau protein positron emission tom tracer products, and obtains the exclusive rights to the clinical development, production and marketing of the product in Chinese mainland.
In November 2023, its wholly-owned subsidiary, Yantai Dongcheng Nuclear Healthcare, joined forces with Eckert & Ziegler Radiopharma Projekte UG (EZP), the world's largest provider of isotopes for medical, scientific and industrial use, to jointly develop medical isotopes.
It is worth noting that there are only more than 20 companies in the layout of nuclear drugs in China, unlike Hengrui, Yuanda, Xiantong Pharmaceutical, etc., which have attracted much attention in the field of innovative nuclear drugs in recent years, China Tongsheng and Dongcheng Pharmaceutical, two old nuclear drug companies, have formed a "duopoly" pattern, with a complete range of existing nuclear drugs and a leading market share. In the two major nuclear drug markets of imaging diagnosis and ** and urea breath test kits and testers, the two leading companies together account for almost 80% of the market share.
However, the secondary market does not seem to be cold to Dongcheng Pharmaceutical's "buy, buy, buy", as of the afternoon of February 21, Dongcheng Pharmaceutical's share price was reported at 1461 yuan shares, down 155%, with a total market capitalization of 1204.7 billion yuan.
Reference: Corporate announcements.