Photo/Shetuwang

Mar. 23 (NBD) -- Beijing-based anti-tumour drug developer InnoCare Pharma Limited (InnoCare, 09969.HK) "rang" the bell at the HK bourse online Monday, becoming the first biotech & pharmaceutical company to have landed in HK in 2020. Its shares opened 5.03 percent higher.

Renowned structural biologist Shi Yigong is a co-founder of InnoCare. Shi is the first Chinese scientist to win the Gregori Aminoff Prize in Crystallography presented by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Together with cancer genetics expert Zhang Zemin, Shi provides scientific research guidance to the company.

Being a clinical-stage drug company, InnoCare has 9 candidate drugs under development but none of them has hit the market so far. Besides, it recorded net losses of 2.436 billion yuan (343.58 million US dollars) from 2017 to the third quarter of 2019 and the loss may continue.

Despite that, it was well-received by investors in the secondary market with its shares being 298.75 times oversubscribed, which is likely boosted by its technology strength and its core product Orelabrutinib.

Against the background of an ageing population and the increasing amount of cancer patients, the anti-tumour market is blooming. The market value of anti-tumour drugs is expected to exceed 100 billion US dollars by 2030 in China, according to 36Kr citing statistics of market research company Frost & Sullivan. 

Aiming at the Chinese market, InnoCare now has applied for market release of its star product Orelabrutinib for the treatment of a variety of B-cell malignancies and autoimmune diseases.

There are three similar drugs, called BTK inhibitor, now available globally. Ibrutinib, the first-generation BTK inhibitor co-developed by AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson, was approved in China in 2017 and remains the only approved one in the country.

The first-generation BTK inhibitor is likely to show off-target effects. In comparison, InnoCare's Orelabrutinib, as a second-generation drug, could be the best BTK inhibitor with smaller side-effects, said the company.

As of press time, shares of InnoCare has surged 9.61 percent.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn