Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, China’s largest drugmaker by market value, reported an 88.9 per cent rise in third-quarter profit, driven by income from out-licensing deals.
Net profit for the quarter ended September 30 climbed to Rmb2.5bn ($375mn) from Rmb1.3bn a year earlier, beating an analyst forecast of about Rmb1.84bn compiled by LSEG. Operating revenue rose 21 per cent to Rmb9bn. The company reported its results after the market closed.
The performance underscores a broader shift among Chinese drugmakers, which are expanding licensing arrangements and developing new medicines as Beijing’s centralized bulk-buying programs squeeze revenue. Global pharmaceutical groups, meanwhile, are intensifying their search for experimental drugs developed in China as they cut costs ahead of patent expiries.
Hengrui sells both generic medicines and its own innovative products, including the Hodgkin lymphoma treatment AiRuiKa. It said in August that it had completed 13 overseas business development deals since 2023. Last month, Novo Nordisk (NVO) agreed to pay up to $2.6bn for rights to an experimental weight-loss pill from the Chinese group.
Hengrui’s pipeline is advancing. By the end of the first half, 17 of its clinical programs had reached Phase III, including its experimental psoriasis drug RSS0393 and breast cancer treatment HRS-8080, while 10 innovative medicines were in Phase I development.
Growth in innovative drug sales improved in the third quarter, the company said, but it expects a gap to persist for the full year between actual growth and the target set at the start of 2026.
Hengrui’s shares have fallen about 23 per cent this year, underperforming a 2 per cent decline in the Hang Seng Biotech Index.