Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co., China’s largest drugmaker by market value, surged in its trading debut in Hong Kong after raising HK$9.9 billion ($1.3 billion) as listings pick up in the Asian financial hub.
Hengrui, which went public in Shanghai in 2000, was founded in 1970 and traces its roots to a factory producing pharmaceutical ingredients in a small town in eastern China. The company branched out over the next few decades, amassing a wide portfolio of generics and branded drugs.
In the past few years, it began earning international recognition as being at the forefront of China’s rapid biotech emergence. It’s struck a dozen deals to develop experimental therapies outside of China, with global drugmakers such as Merck & Co. and Ideaya Biosciences Inc. In a landmark pact valued at as much as $6 billion, Hengrui licensed three experimental obesity drugs to a startup backed by Bain Capital Life Sciences and RTW Investments.
But the company has yet to win an approval for any of its branded drugs outside of China. Its first attempt at FDA approval was rejected twice, and other drugs are still years away from potential overseas registration.
Sun Piaoyang, Hengrui’s longtime chairman, boasts a fortune of $12.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Still, that’s less than the wealth of his wife, Zhong Huijuan, who leads Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Co. She has a fortune valued at $15.1 billion, according to the index.
