BEIJING, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, China’s biggest drugmaker by market value, reported a 0.34% rise in first-half net profit on Wednesday, as its generics business remained under pressure from bulk-procurement programs designed to lower healthcare costs. Hengrui said revenue in its generics drug business was down 16.07% year-on-year to 5.1 billion yuan ($758.52 […]
Health
China’s top drugmaker Hengrui sees profit growth squeezed by bulk-buying programs
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BEIJING, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, China’s biggest drugmaker by market value, reported a 0.34% rise in first-half net profit on Wednesday, as its generics business remained under pressure from bulk-procurement programs designed to lower healthcare costs.
Hengrui said revenue in its generics drug business was down 16.07% year-on-year to 5.1 billion yuan ($758.52 million) in the six months through June due to bulk-buying programs, which will result in lower drug prices. It said it had proactively scaled back investment in the segment.
By contrast the oncology and metabolic disease specialist said its revenue in innovative drugs saw a 16.38% jump to 8.8 billion yuan, accounting for 63.16% of total pharmaceutical revenue.
Oncology drugs make up the majority of Hengrui’s innovative drug revenue, but non-oncology innovative drug revenue jumped by 73.97%.
Total revenue was down 1.94% year-on-year to 15.5 billion yuan in the half, a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange showed.
For the most recent quarter through June, Hengrui achieved a net profit of 2.2 billion yuan, a Reuters calculation showed, compared with an average analyst forecast of 2.9 billion yuan, according to LSEG data.
Quarterly revenue stood at 7.3 billion yuan, missing a mean forecast of 8.9 billion from two brokerages.
($1 = 6.7236 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Andrew Silver in Shanghai, with Shi Bu and Liz Lee in Beijing; Editing by Joe Bavier and David Holmes)