On March 10, China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) ( China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) . SH) shares were closed at the opening trading limit, at 19.03 yuan.
This comes from an announcement of the company the day before. The announcement shows that China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) signed an agreement with Pfizer Inc that will be responsible for the commercial operation of Pfizer Inc COVID-19 virus treatment Paxlovid in Chinese mainland in 2022. Meanwhile, Pfizer official WeChat public also issued a seal on China’s official account. It said it is “very honored to cooperate with general technology China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) to support the Chinese government and people and actively respond to this public health crisis”.
The reporter of the daily economic news contacted the insiders of Pfizer pharmaceutical and China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) . The other party said that all information was subject to the announcement, but the news soon led to the rise of the share price of potential raw material suppliers of paxlovid, including senxuan medicine and Aba Chemicals Corporation(300261) ( Aba Chemicals Corporation(300261) . SZ) who previously clarified the partnership with paxlovid.
The reporter noted that at present, no Chinese enterprises have explicitly disclosed that they are paxlovid’s raw material suppliers.
no detailed information on business operation China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) : contents outside the announcement are still under negotiation
Although China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) reminded in the announcement that the final use and sales of the product (paxlovid) are greatly uncertain due to factors such as epidemic prevention and control, and it is expected that the relevant business scale accounts for a small proportion of the company’s overall business volume and has no significant impact on the company’s recent operating performance, the market investment enthusiasm is still high.
This focus on the commercialization of paxlovid largely comes from the drug itself.
On November 5 last year, Pfizer announced paxlovid’s phase II / III study on its official website. With excellent clinical effect, Pfizer became an important member of covid-19 therapeutic drugs in the world. For the performance in 2022, Pfizer expects the annual revenue to be US $98 billion to US $102 billion, and the revenue of covid-19 oral drug paxlovid is about US $22 billion, accounting for 21.57%.
In February this year, the State Food and Drug Administration conditionally approved paxlovid to be listed for the treatment of adults with mild to moderate covid-19 pneumonia with severe high-risk factors. As the first oral covid-19 virus treatment drug approved for listing in China, its follow-up sales channels and commercial performance have naturally attracted much market attention.
This also explains why China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) share price rose after the official announcement of the identity of “paxlovid mainland business operation partner”. However, up to now, there is no detailed outflow of commercial operation in the market. When the reporter of “daily economic news” contacted Pfizer insiders and China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) securities department, the other party said that the announcement would prevail. The latter disclosed that “(other than the announcement) other situations were still under negotiation and communication”, but did not respond to the contents of negotiation and communication.
According to public information, China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) is a pharmaceutical enterprise subordinate to general technology group. Initially, its main business was technology import and export trade. Since 2005, it has transformed into a pharmaceutical company, and regarded international trade of medicine as an important pole of the company’s business, which accounted for 32% of the company’s total revenue in 2020.
In addition, China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) has maintained long-term and stable cooperative relations with many production enterprises at home and abroad, such as Bayer, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, MSD, Beckman and so on. This may also be part of the reason why Pfizer chose China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) as its agent.
However, the performance of China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) itself is not ideal. On January 29, China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) released the announcement of annual performance reduction. It is estimated that the attributable net profit in 2021 will be 300 million yuan to 700 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 77% to 47%, mainly due to the significant year-on-year decrease of export epidemic prevention business due to the change of overseas epidemic situation. In addition, the company’s pharmaceutical industry and pharmaceutical business performance also decreased year-on-year due to factors such as volume procurement and adjustment of medical insurance catalogue.
Chinese raw material suppliers did not disclose the potential rise of the underlying stock price
Whether Pfizer covid-19 oral drug was introduced into the market in February or its joint venture with China Meheco Group Co.Ltd(600056) business giants this time, the stock price performance of domestic covid-19 drug related companies is the focus of the market.
Today (March 10), the share price of tengshengbo Pharmaceutical (02137. HK), a Chinese covid-19 drug manufacturer, fell 2.88%. As the first company to hold the domestic covid-19 specific drug, the combination therapy of temasebo’s monoclonal antibody ambacizumab / romisizumab was listed in December last year. At present, there is no price and sales channel information.
In Pfizer’s purchase agreement with the U.S. government, paxlovid, a five-day course, is priced at $530, while the price of neutralizing antibody drugs is nearly four times that of it. The market speculates that Pfizer covid-19 oral drug commercialization operation is implemented, which may seize the market share by virtue of price advantage.
In addition, the share price trend of other enterprises in China that distribute covid-19 oral small molecule drugs, including Kaifa Pharmaceutical (09939. HK), Xiansheng Pharmaceutical (02096. HK) and Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co.Ltd(688180) ( Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co.Ltd(688180) . SH), is differentiated today.
Among them, Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co.Ltd(688180) in the field of covid-19 treatment, there are four products under research, and the share price rose 10.13% today; Kaifa pharmaceutical previously disclosed that the interim results of covid-19 drug under research were not ideal, and it planned to adjust the clinical trial plan. Today, the share price fell by 3.25%; The 3CL protease inhibitor candidate drug of Xiansheng pharmaceutical is still in the preclinical research stage, and its share price rose 3.76% today.
In contrast, paxlovid’s potential raw material manufacturers in China are the most unified in the rise of share price. It is understood that covid-19 drug paxlovid is a compound preparation of 3CL protease inhibitor pf-07321332 and low-dose ritonavir.
Senxuan pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Jinghua Pharmaceutical Group Co.Ltd(002349) ( Jinghua Pharmaceutical Group Co.Ltd(002349) . SZ), produced and sold ritonavir series of pharmaceutical intermediates. Today Jinghua Pharmaceutical Group Co.Ltd(002349) shares rose 3.65%; Aba Chemicals Corporation(300261) shares, which can develop and produce pharmaceutical intermediate carbonic anhydride (another important raw material for the synthesis of covid-19 oral drugs), soared by 20.02% Phichem Corporation(300398) ( Phichem Corporation(300398) . SZ), another important intermediate for synthesizing Pfizer covid-19 oral medicine, rose 6.01% today.
It is worth noting that for reasons such as business confidentiality agreements, no Chinese enterprise has explicitly disclosed itself as paxlovid’s raw material supplier. Among them, senxuan pharmaceutical also urgently clarified that “it has not signed a purchase and sales contract related to ritonavir pharmaceutical intermediates with Pfizer, and has not supplied ritonavir series intermediates to Pfizer”, Aba Chemicals Corporation(300261) also said that “it has not signed any cooperation agreement with Pfizer… It is impossible to determine whether the company’s carone anhydride and its derivatives are indirectly supplied to Pfizer”.
