Ebola Vaccine-Maker CanSino Lands on 'Chinese Nasdaq,' Rises 124% from Opening Price

Healthcare Author: Mengyao Zhang Aug 13, 2020 11:09 AM (GMT+8)

The Hong Kong Exchange-listed CanSino finally landed on China's SSE Star Market, becoming the first-ever ‘A + H’ stock in the vaccine area.

First 'A+H' vaccine stock is coming. Image credit: Markus Winkler/Unsplash

CanSino Biologics (688185:SH; 06185:HK) landed on the Chinese SSE Star Market at an issuance price of CNY 209.71 per share. As of 10:30 am, the share price had increased to CNY 398.01 at a market value of CNY 9,016 million.

Founded in 2009, the company has established four technology platforms, pivoting towards adenovirus vector vaccine technology, protein structure design and recombinant technology, combination technique and vaccine-preparation techniques.  With a focus on the Chinese vaccine market, the company conducts research, develops and commercializes globally innovative vaccines, Chinese potential pilot vaccines and optimal domestic alternatives for imported vaccines.

Among the 16 vaccine pipelines, its Ebola vaccine (Ad5-EBOV) did not enter the market in 2017 but has been used for national reserve and emergency use. The other two, for meningococcal conjugate vaccines (MCV), have gone through Phase III – the last phase in clinical trials – and are waiting for the future approval of the National Drug Application (NDA).

So far, the company has not realized profitability because no vaccines have entered the commercial stage. The net losses from 2017 to 2019 were CNY 64 million, CNY 138 million and CNY 157 million. In March 2019, CanSino went to IPO on the Hong Kong Exchange; in HK it hit a market value of HKD 51.4 billion today, August 13, 2020.

As more pipelines move into clinical trials, CanSino expects to spend between CNY 900 million to CNY 1,200 million on R & D within the next two years.