Ascletis released its 2018 Annual Report. According to the report, the total revenue of the company is CNY 166 million, a year-on-year increase of 212.6%; the gross profit of around CNY 154 million, an increase of 189.4%.
Ascletis Pharma Inc. (Ascletis, 1672.HK) released its 2018 Annual Report. According to the report, the total revenue of the company is CNY 166 million, a year-on-year increase of 212.6%; the gross profit of around CNY 154 million, an increase of 189.4%.
Ascletis Pharma is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since August 1, 2018. As an R&D driven innovative biotech company, Ascletis Pharma is committed to address the unmet medical needs of the three major therapeutic areas: anti-viral, cancer and fatty liver diseases. At this stage, Ascletis has developed an integrated production platform that covers the entire industry value chain from discovery and development of new drugs to production and commercialization.
Ascletis is currently commercializing two drugs. One is China's first direct antiviral drug, Ganovo, which was independently developed for Hepatitis C. Its annual sales in 2018 reached CNY 73 million. Besides, the hepatitis C virus (HCV) drug “Ravidasvir” was developed by the company, which is close to the commercial stage. The drug was approved by the NDA and received a review in October 2018.
Ascletis’ production base is located in Binhai Area of Zhejiang, with a total construction area of approximately 17,000 square meters, including a tablet production line with an annual capacity of 130 million pieces. It is reported that the production base has obtained the drug production license, and the National Food and Drug Administration has conducted the GMP verification.
The company’s Fatty Liver Disease drug has not yet marketed yet; however, it presents a potential success in China due to the increasing obesity amongst teenagers in China. According to the latest statistics from China, the proportion of obesity among children under the age of 15 increased from 15% in 1982 to 27% in 2018.
The company’s successful business model presents a role-model for Chinese pharma-developers. Generally, drug discovery and commercialization are not processed by one company but outsourced to third party companies called CROs (Contract Research Organizations). However, Ascletis is one of the rare companies that prefer to deal with the entire process of drug commercialization on the one chain.