Omicron attack, the epidemic continued to spread throughout the country. On November 26, who defined Omicron as the fifth “concern mutant” (VOC). In less than two months, Omicron spread rapidly around the world and has replaced Delta as the mainstream strain. According to the National Health Commission, the Omicron mutant was first imported into Hong Kong, China on November 27, 2021 and China for the first time on December 9. Recently, many places reported the discovery of infection cases of Omicron mutant strain. Among them, the imported cases of Omicron in Tianjin have caused large-scale local infection. The situation of covid-19 epidemic prevention and control in China has become more severe after the import of Omicron.
Domestic oral drugs are urgently needed and in an important strategic position. Since the outbreak of covid-19, seeking effective drug treatment has been a priority. Compared with macromolecular drugs (such as neutralizing antibody drugs), small molecular oral drugs have the advantages of direct antiviral effect, low production cost and medication cost, easy storage and transportation conditions, convenient administration and good patient compliance. Oral covid-19 drugs are expected to become a more convenient choice for the treatment of covid-19 pneumonia in the future. At present, there are two small molecule drugs approved by EUA in the world, namely, Mercure East muppeville and Pfizer paxlovid; China is not included in the generic drug licensing agreement signed with MPP (drug patent pool). Therefore, domestic covid-19 oral drugs are in a very important strategic position for epidemic prevention and control in China.
A variety of therapeutic drugs are in the clinical stage, Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co.Ltd(688180) , develop the pharmaceutical industry and take the lead in real biology:
1) Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co.Ltd(688180) vv116: in December 2021, the Ministry of health of Uzbekistan approved the emergency use authorization of vv116, which is in the global phase II / III clinical preparation.
2) develop pharmaceutical industry prochloramide: on December 27, 2021, the company announced the interim analysis results of global phase III clinical trials, which showed that they did not reach statistical significance. The company plans to continue to recruit high-risk patients.
3) real biological azvudine: the preliminary analysis data are good, and the global phase III test is in progress.
3CL is a popular target, and many inhibitors are in the early stage of clinic:
1) Frontier Biotechnologies Inc(688221) fb2001: in cooperation with Shanghai Institute of pharmacy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, phase I clinical has been approved in China and the United States.
2) Xiansheng pharmaceutical sim0417: it shows good antiviral activity and safety before clinical treatment
3) Fujian Cosunter Pharmaceutical Co.Ltd(300436) : signed a cooperative development contract with Wuxi Apptec Co.Ltd(603259) and is expected to complete preclinical development in Q4, 2022
4) Yunding Xinyao: a down payment of US $2.5 million and a total price of up to US $200 million. 3CL drugs are introduced from EDCC. The clinical trial of eddc-2214 is expected to start in the second half of this year
Investment suggestions: focus on Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co.Ltd(688180) in phase III and with potential; It is suggested to pay attention to other enterprises with advanced treatment and drugs, such as Frontier Biotechnologies Inc(688221) , pioneering pharmaceutical-b, Xiansheng pharmaceutical, Guangdong Zhongsheng Pharmaceutical Co.Ltd(002317) , Fujian Cosunter Pharmaceutical Co.Ltd(300436) , etc; At the same time, pay attention to the cdmo industrial chain of relevant drugs and authorized generic drugs / API enterprises in non European and American countries.
Risk tips: covid-19 virus mutation risk, significant risk of epidemic prevention and control, risk that the clinical progress is less than expected, and risk that the research report information is not updated in time
