In the wave of global pharmaceutical innovation, China's innovative pharmaceutical industry is emerging and making great strides forward. From the recent financial reports released by major pharmaceutical companies, it can be seen that in 2024, Hengrui Pharmaceutical, BeiGene, and China Biopharmaceutical will become the leading forces in promoting China's innovative drugs towards the era of "billions" with outstanding innovation strength and market performance, reflecting the vigorous and upward development trend of China's innovative drugs.

1. Hengrui
Innovative drug revenue exceeds 13.8 billion yuan, accounting for more than half of total sales revenue

Hengrui, as the leader in innovative drugs in China, has achieved great success in 2024. According to its annual report released on March 30th, Hengrui achieved a total operating revenue of 27.985 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.63%, and a net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 6.337 billion yuan, a significant year-on-year increase of 47.28%. Both revenue and net profit reached new highs.

What is particularly noteworthy is that Hengrui's innovative drug sales revenue in 2024, after breaking through the 10 billion yuan mark for the first time in 2023, took advantage of the situation and reached 13.892 billion yuan (including tax, excluding external licensing revenue), a year-on-year increase of 30.60%. The proportion of innovative drug revenue to the company's total sales revenue (excluding external licensing revenue) exceeds half.

In terms of the transformation of innovative achievements, from 2024 to present, Hengrui has a total of 9 innovative achievements approved for market, including 4 Class 1 innovative drugs such as Taijirudin Fumarate, Funazizumab, Rexacinan Antibody, and Aimaxitinib Sulfate approved for market, covering multiple fields such as neuroscience, immunotherapy, and cardiovascular disease. At present, Hengrui has been approved to market 19 new molecular entity drugs (Class 1 innovative drugs) and 4 other innovative drugs (Class 2 new drugs) in China. At the same time, new indications for products such as Fluzopanib, Apatinib, and Henggelijing have also been approved.

Hengrui continues to maintain high intensity in research and development investment. According to the financial report, in 2024, Hengrui's cumulative R&D investment reached a historical high of 8.228 billion yuan, including 6.583 billion yuan of expensed R&D investment, accounting for 29.40% of sales revenue. So far, Hengrui's cumulative R&D investment has exceeded 44 billion yuan. With strong research and development capabilities and abundant pipeline reserves, it is expected to launch 11 projects by 2025, such as the highly anticipated HER2 ADC Rickangtrastuzumab (SHR-A811) product, which is expected to be approved for use in non-small cell lung cancer; In the next three years, it is expected that 47 innovative achievements will be approved for listing, covering treatment fields such as tumors, metabolism and cardiovascular diseases, immune and respiratory diseases, including heavyweight products such as HER2 ADC and GLP-1 drugs.

At the same time, innovative drugs going global has become the second engine of Hengrui's performance growth. In 2024, Hengrui received a licensing cooperation consideration of 160 million euros from Merck Healthcare in Germany and 100 million dollars from Kailera Therapeutics in the United States, breaking historical records in BD revenue.

2. BeiGene
Global layout yields fruitful results, Zebutinib single product revenue exceeds 10 billion yuanInnovative drug star company BeiGene's revenue in 2024 is also impressive. On March 27th, it released its full year performance announcement for 2024, with a total revenue of 3.8 billion US dollars (approximately 27.214 billion yuan), an increase of 55% compared to the same period last year's 2.459 billion US dollars. The product revenue was 3.78 billion US dollars, an increase of 72.6% compared to the same period last year's 2.19 billion US dollars.

Its core product Zebutinib (Baiyueze) ®） In 2024, global sales totaled 2.6 billion US dollars (approximately 18.859 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 105%, making it the first domestically produced drug to exceed 10 billion yuan in annual sales. Another product, Baize An ® The revenue of Trastuzumab in 2024 was 620 million US dollars, an increase of 15.7% compared to the same period last year's 536 million US dollars. In addition, Angavi ®、 Beilitou ®、 Kyros ® The product has also achieved varying degrees of revenue growth.

Although BeiGene's net loss for the year was $645 million in terms of profit, it has narrowed by 26.9% compared to the previous year, and its non GAAP operating profit for the year has turned positive, significantly improving its profitability.

BeiGene's outstanding performance in innovative drug revenue cannot be achieved without its sustained and high research and development investment. In 2024, its research and development expenses will be 1.953 billion US dollars, actively conducting clinical trials worldwide, promoting global registration and commercialization of products, continuously expanding market share, and enhancing the global influence of products.

3. SINO BIOPHARMACEUTICAL
Intensive implementation of innovative achievements, with billions of innovative drug revenue as the pillar

Chinese biopharmaceuticals will also experience a concentrated outbreak of innovative achievements in 2024. According to its recently released annual performance report, it achieved a revenue of 28.87 billion yuan in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 10.2%, reaching a historic high; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 3.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 50.1%. As a benchmark for traditional pharmaceutical companies' transformation and innovation, the revenue of innovative biopharmaceutical products in China has exceeded 10 billion yuan for the first time, reaching 12.06 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.9%, and accounting for more than 40% of the company's overall revenue for the first time.

In 2024, six innovative products of China's biopharmaceutical industry were approved for market by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), including four Class 1 innovative drugs approved for lung cancer, making it the company with the highest number of Class 1 innovative drugs approved in 2024. The revenue from new products was 10.09 billion yuan, an increase of 25.4% year-on-year. In terms of R&D investment, China's biopharmaceutical industry has been among the top domestic pharmaceutical companies for many years. In 2024, its R&D investment exceeded 5 billion yuan, accounting for 17.6% of its revenue, of which about 78% was invested in innovative drug research and development.

At the performance briefing, Xie Chengrun, CEO of China Biopharmaceutical, revealed that the company will enter a period of explosive innovation achievements in the next three years. Nearly 20 innovative products are expected to be approved for market, covering cutting-edge therapies such as bispecific antibodies and ADC (antibody drug conjugates). It is expected that by 2027, the number of innovative products of the company will exceed 30. It is expected that the performance will continue to maintain double-digit growth in 2025.

From the performance of the three pharmaceutical companies mentioned above, it can be seen that Chinese innovative pharmaceutical companies are continuously increasing their R&D investment, actively promoting the transformation of innovative achievements, and accelerating the commercialization process of their products. With the improvement of research and development capabilities and continuous output of innovative achievements by more innovative pharmaceutical companies, coupled with the support of national policies and the continuous promotion of overseas commercialization, China's innovative pharmaceutical industry is expected to occupy a more important position in the global pharmaceutical market.