With more and more pharmaceutical companies outsourcing their research and development work to CRO companies, the global pharmaceutical CRO market is growing rapidly. Some institutions predict that the global CRO market size will reach 93.5 billion US dollars by 2024, and the Chinese market size will grow to 123.8 billion yuan.

 

 

 

According to analysis, the scale of pharmaceutical research and development investment in China has increased from 9.3 billion US dollars in 2014 to 27 billion US dollars in 2020. The sustained growth of drug research and development investment has laid the material foundation for the rapid growth of the CRO industry. With the launch and implementation of a series of national policies such as the "Major New Drug Creation" technology major project, encouragement of innovative drugs, and research and development of generic drugs, the market size of the CRO industry will further expand in the future.

 

 

 

Recently, several CXO industry companies have disclosed their performance reports for the first three quarters and released positive signals. According to the third quarter report disclosed by Boteng Co., Ltd. on the evening of October 24th, the company achieved a revenue of 773 million yuan in the third quarter of 2024, a year-on-year increase of about 11%, a year-on-year increase of about 29% after excluding the impact of large orders, and a month on month increase of 14.65%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was -36.3932 million yuan, a month on month increase of 51.58%.

 

 

 

The report shows that as of the end of September, the company's CDMO business for small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients has maintained a year-on-year growth of over 40% in outstanding orders. Therefore, based on the delivery pace of orders in hand, the company maintains its expected guidance for a positive year-on-year growth in annual revenue (excluding large order caliber).

 

 

 

Divided by business segments, in the first three quarters of this year, Boten's small molecule raw material CDMO business achieved a revenue of 1.968 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 3% after excluding the impact of large orders; The CDMO business of small molecule preparations achieved a revenue of 101 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 65%; The CDMO business of gene cell therapy achieved a revenue of 40.02 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 27%; The revenue from new businesses such as peptides, oligonucleotides, and ADCs is approximately 13.04 million yuan.

 

 

 

And on the evening of October 23rd, Heyuan Biotechnology also released its third quarter report for 2024. The report shows that in the first three quarters of this year, the company achieved a revenue of 184 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.22%; Realize a net profit attributable to the parent company of -190 million yuan. Among them, Heyuan Biotechnology achieved a revenue of 70.8058 million yuan in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 32.99%; Realize a net profit attributable to the parent company of -76.4214 million yuan.

 

 

 

According to the data, Heyuan Biotechnology's main business includes providing CRO services such as gene therapy vector development and gene function research for basic research on cell and gene therapy, as well as CDMO services such as IND-CMC pharmaceutical research and clinical sample GMP production for the development of cell and gene drugs.

 

 

 

In terms of orders, as of the end of the third quarter, Heyuan Biotechnology added more than 250 million yuan in CDMO orders that year. In the third quarter, the company supported customers to obtain 4 IND approvals, and the company has helped customers obtain 43 IND application approvals from multiple countries including China and the United States (including 12 approvals from the US FDA).

 

 

 

In addition, on October 10th, Shengnuo Biotechnology, a CXO listed company in the peptide track, announced its performance forecast for the first three quarters of 2024. It is expected that the company will achieve a net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 50.717 million to RMB 61.1987 million in the first three quarters of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 43.90% to 75.88%.

 

 

 

It is reported that many CXO companies have already shown positive performance signals in the second quarter of this year. If an institution selects 23 CXO listed companies and analyzes their 2024 semi annual performance, it is found that the total revenue of the 23 companies is 40.87 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.93%; The total net profit attributable to the parent company was 7.182 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 35.71%. However, on a quarterly basis, in the second quarter, with the initial recovery of investment and financing in the global biopharmaceutical industry, the performance of several CXOs has improved. Specifically, several CXO companies saw an improvement in their on hand orders in the second quarter. For example, WuXi AppTec's orders in hand in the first half of 2024 increased by 33.2% year on year after excluding COVID-19's commercial projects, showing a significant increase in new molecular business orders. Kailaiying also pointed out in its performance forecast that the year-on-year growth of new orders exceeded 20%, and there was a significant increase in the second quarter compared to the first quarter.