Another Chinese pharmaceutical company announced the research and development progress of covid-19 therapeutic drugs.
In January 3rd, the Hong Kong stock listed company, SARS-CoV-2, announced that it would expand the capacity of ritonavir oral tablets and publish an oral direct anti COVID-19 virus pipeline for the treatment of New Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Affected by this news, the share price of Geli pharmaceutical rose sharply and finally closed at HK $4.35/share, up 32.22%.
Facing the huge market demand, covid-19 oral drug market has become a hot track. According to Southwest Securities Co.Ltd(600369) , the global oral covid-19 drug market is expected to be billions to tens of billions of dollars. According to incomplete statistics by the reporter of Securities Daily, the enterprises that distribute covid-19 oral small molecule drugs in China mainly include developing pharmaceutical industry, Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co.Ltd(688180) , Xiansheng pharmaceutical industry and Fujian Cosunter Pharmaceutical Co.Ltd(300436) pharmaceutical industry. In addition, covid-19 oral therapeutic drugs of Pfizer and MSD have been approved for emergency use. With the increase of entrants, what is the market prospect of covid-19 oral therapeutic drugs?
“The end of the covid-19 epidemic requires the global accessibility of relevant therapeutic drugs, otherwise the epidemic will be difficult to disappear in a short time. Due to various factors, the approval of covid-19 therapeutic drugs by Pfizer and MSD can only be supplied to the United States, Britain and other countries in the initial stage. This also leaves a huge market space for subsequent developers.” Wu JINZI, founder, chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Ge Li, said .
stock changes of ritonavir related manufacturers
On December 22, 2021, Pfizer, a multinational pharmaceutical company, announced that FDA approved the emergency use authorization of its oral covid-19 therapeutic drug paxlovid (containing nirmatrelvir [pf-07321332] and ritonavir [ritonavir]) for the treatment of mild to moderate covid-19 adult and child patients (12 years old and above, weighing at least 40 kg).
Among them, the original drug research enterprise of ritonavir is aibowei, which has abandoned the global patent right of ritonavir in 2020 to face the problem of drug supply shortage that may threaten the world.
Wu JINZI introduced to our reporter that low-dose ritonavir oral tablet (100mg), as a pharmacokinetic enhancer of a variety of antiviral protease inhibitors, is one of the components of paxlovid (nirmatrelvir + ritonavir), an oral direct anti-covid-19 virus drug developed by Pfizer. “Ritonavir oral tablet of goli pharmaceutical is the only drug approved for marketing through bioequivalence study in China.”
“At present, Pfizer has proposed that the output of covid-19 oral drug paxlovid in 2022 is expected to increase from 80 million to 120 million courses. However, the global output of ritonavir oral tablets is limited. The company will supply ritonavir oral tablets worldwide in the future.” Wu JINZI told reporters.
It is worth mentioning that since Pfizer announced the covid-19 drug treatment plan, it has benefited not only gelly pharmaceutical, but also the shares of Listed Companies in China’s relevant industrial chain.
According to the data, the share price of A-share company Jinghua Pharmaceutical Group Co.Ltd(002349) has risen for seven consecutive trading days since December 22, 2021. As of January 3, the cumulative increase was 88%. It is understood that one of the reasons for the continuous rise of Jinghua Pharmaceutical Group Co.Ltd(002349) stock price is related to ritonavir.
On December 31, 2021, Jinghua Pharmaceutical Group Co.Ltd(002349) announced the change of stock price, saying that Jiangsu senxuan Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “senxuan pharmaceutical”), the holding subsidiary of the company, produced and sold ritonavir series of pharmaceutical intermediates, and has not yet carried out the production and sales of ritonavir API; At present, senxuan pharmaceutical has not signed the purchase and sales contract related to ritonavir pharmaceutical intermediates with Pfizer; The ritonavir series intermediates sold by Sen Xuan medicine are mainly used in the synthesis of anti AIDS drug ritonavir. In 2021, the sales volume of ritonavir pharmaceutical intermediate of senxuan medicine is expected to be 11 tons, and the sales revenue is expected to be 16.84 million yuan, with a year-on-year decrease of about 33% and 32% respectively; From December 1, 2021 to the date of this announcement, senxuan pharmaceutical did not sign large orders related to ritonavir series intermediates, and there were no new customers of this series of products.
covid-19 drug R & D race
In the face of the challenge of covid-19 virus, covid-19 oral therapeutic drugs are expected. Among them, oral small molecule chemical drugs have attracted much market attention due to their advantages of convenient administration and low cost.
Wu Jingzi told reporters that the company’s anti covid-19 pneumonia drug pipeline currently includes: listed ritonavir oral tablets (100mg); Oral polymerase (RdRp) inhibitor asc10 and oral protease (3clpro) inhibitor asc11.
Among them, asc10 developed by the company is an oral direct anti-covid-19 virus candidate drug targeting polymerase (RdRp). Compared with molnupiravir, an oral polymerase inhibitor with the same target approved by FDA, asc10 has a new and differentiated chemical structure. Gelly pharmaceutical plans to submit clinical trial applications to China, the United States and other countries in the first half of 2022.
Another research drug ASC11 is an oral direct anti COVID-19 drug candidate targeting protease (3CLpro), which is combined with the ritonavir oral tablet, which has been marketed, to treat New Coronavirus infection. Asc11 has a new and differentiated chemical structure compared with the same target oral protease inhibitor nirmatrelvir approved by FDA. Ge Li plans to submit clinical trial applications to China, the United States and other countries in the second half of 2022.
On the announcement of the company’s announcement, the reporter learned from Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co.Ltd(688180) that in December 31, 2021, the Ministry of health of Uzbekistan approved the emergency use authorization of oral nucleoside COVID-19 VV116, which was used to treat 2019 New Coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19). Vv116 is jointly developed by Shanghai Institute of pharmacy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xinjiang Institute of physical and chemical technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wangshan wangshui and Central Asia drug R & D center, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In October 2021, Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co.Ltd(688180) announced that it had reached a cooperation with Wangshan wangshui to jointly undertake the global clinical development and industrialization of the drug. At present, vv116 is undergoing clinical research in China.
In addition, the pharmaceutical company of China, the pioneer pharmaceutical company, has entered into a technology transfer contract with Shanghai Pharmaceutical Institute to obtain the exclusive right to develop New Coronavirus’s SIM0417 Series in the global development, production and commercialization.
It is worth mentioning that the development of covid-19 drugs is not plain sailing. On December 28, 2021, because the interim analysis of phase III clinical trial of covid-19 oral drug prochloramide did not meet the expectations, the development of pharmaceutical-b by a listed company in Hong Kong stock market once fell by 70%. So, is there still a counter attack opportunity for Geli pharmaceutical, which has not yet entered the clinical trial stage? What’s the odds?
“There are risks in the development of covid-19 drugs, one is to find the right target, the other is to have a good clinical scheme design, etc. Generally speaking, compared with the traditional new drug research and development, the process of covid-19 drug development, clinical to emergency use is greatly shortened.” An analyst who asked not to be named told reporters.
(voice of Securities Daily)
