On April 22nd, Interface News learned that former Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Xiansheng Pharmaceutical, Zhu Tong, joined Zaiding Pharmaceutical as the Chief Business Officer for Greater China today. The current Chief Business Officer and President of Zaiding Pharmaceutical, Liang Yi, will leave Zaiding Pharmaceutical on April 30th.
On the same day, Zaiding Pharmaceutical confirmed the aforementioned news to Interface News, but did not provide further explanation for the personnel changes in this position in the company.
Based on his resume information, Zhu Tong has been working in the field of pharmaceutical marketing for many years. Before joining Xiansheng Pharmaceutical, Zhu Tong served as the Vice President of AstraZeneca China, responsible for the Cardiovascular, Renal, and Metabolic business units. In the early stages of Zhu Tong's career, he worked for multinational companies such as Roche, Sanofi, and Bristol Smith&Gamble.
As of the close on April 22, Zaiding Pharmaceutical closed at HKD 11.44 per share, up 6.12%, with a market value of 11.3 billion.
Zaiding Pharmaceutical is a typical representative of the domestic innovative pharmaceutical company "License in" (authorized introduction). In September 2017, the company went public on NASDAQ in the United States, becoming the first Chinese pharmaceutical industry company to go public with a market value of over $1 billion without generating sales revenue. In September 2020, the company was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Liang Yi joined Zaiding Pharmaceutical as early as June 2018. As the former Vice President and Head of Oncology Business at AstraZeneca China, Liang Yi joined Zaiding Pharmaceuticals and served as the Chief Business Officer and President of Greater China. Her main responsibility was to commercialize Zaiding Pharmaceuticals in China, and she also built the commercial team of Zaiding Pharmaceuticals in China.
In December 2018, Zaiding Pharmaceutical launched its first commercial product in China, the PARP inhibitor Nilaparil (trade name: Zele, the same below), which has now developed into the company's pillar product.
With the development of the company, Zaiding Pharmaceutical has continuously stated in its performance reports in recent years that it aims to achieve overall profitability before 2025. Meanwhile, in the industry, Hong Kong stock 18A companies such as Fuhong Hanlin and Platinum Pharmaceuticals have achieved profitability.
Now, it is less than two years before Zhongding Pharmaceutical achieves its goal of making a profit by the end of 2025. But judging from the recent financial performance of the company, the pressure on profitability is not small. This may also further prompt companies to replace their Chief Business Officer in Greater China.
Specifically, the total product revenue of Zaiding Pharmaceutical in 2023 was 266.7 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 25%. The net loss in 2023 was 334.6 million US dollars, which was slightly narrower than the same period in 2022. From 2020 to 2022, the company's net losses were $268.9 million, $704.5 million, and $443 million.
From a product perspective, Zaiding Pharmaceutical currently has five products on the market. Among the products, the annual sales scale of PARP inhibitor Nilaparil (Zele) has once again exceeded 1 billion yuan. In 2023, Zele's sales revenue was 168.8 million US dollars, compared to 145.2 million US dollars in the same period of 2022, a year-on-year increase of 16%.
In the third year after being included in the national medical insurance directory, Zele maintained its position as the champion in hospital sales of PARP inhibitors in the field of ovarian cancer in China. However, there are many competitors in this field. In the domestic pharmaceutical industry, AstraZeneca, Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, and BeiGene's PARP inhibitors are also competing for the market.
Overall, Zaiding Pharmaceutical's products have made breakthroughs in sales in 2023. Among them, the anti infective drug Omycycline Toluenesulfonate (Newzel) is a product of Zaiding Pharmaceutical that has rapidly expanded its sales scale in 2023.
In the first quarter of 2023, Newzel (intravenous injection type) was included in the national medical insurance catalog for the first time in the treatment of adult community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP) and acute bacterial skin and skin structural infections (ABSSSI), driving sales revenue growth. Therefore, the sales revenue of this product in 2023 was 21.7 million US dollars, compared to 5.2 million US dollars in the same period of 2022, a year-on-year increase of 316%.
Another anti-tumor drug, Ruipaitinib (Qingle), had sales revenue of 19.2 million US dollars in 2023 and 15 million US dollars in the same period of 2022, a year-on-year increase of 29%. The sales revenue of tumor electric field treatment product Aipu Shield in 2023 was $47 million, which is basically the same as the $47.3 million in 2022.
In addition, in September 2023, the treatment drug for myasthenia gravis, Agamod, was introduced α Injection (Wei Wei Jia) has been successfully launched in mainland China for the treatment of adult gMG patients with positive acetylcholine (AChR) antibodies. In 2023, the sales revenue of this product was $10 million.
In order to further boost revenue, in late February of this year, Zaiding Pharmaceutical also obtained the sales rights of PD-1 product Navulizumab (commonly known as "O drug") from Bristol Myers Squibb in some provinces of Greater China, including Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Hebei, and Shanxi.
In terms of other expenses, as an innovative pharmaceutical company, Zaiding Pharmaceutical still has considerable research and development expenses. In 2023, the R&D expenses of the enterprise were 265.9 million US dollars, but decreased from 286.4 million US dollars in the same period of 2022. Meanwhile, after Wei Weijia's listing, the sales, general and administrative expenses of Zaiding Pharmaceutical in 2023 were 281.6 million US dollars, an increase from the same period in 2022.
As of the end of 2023, the total cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments, and restricted cash of Zaiding Pharmaceutical amounted to 807.6 million US dollars. This data is $1 billion at the end of 2022.