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Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical
BusinessChina Business

Hong Kong-listed biotech firm Henlius edges closer to Star Market listing

  • ‘We want to make the best medicine in line with the world’s highest standards’, CEO says without revealing time frame or size of listing
  • Company launches biosimilar for treating breast and gastric cancers

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Henlius’s listing will come amid intensified efforts by China to bring its biotechnology industry on par with international standards. Photo: Handout
Daniel Ren

Hong Kong-listed Shanghai Henlius Biotech, which developed China’s first monoclonal antibodies biosimilar (mAb) product last year for cancer treatment, is edging closer to a listing on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style Star Market.

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Scott Liu Shigao, the company’s chief executive and co-founder, said on Sunday that Henlius was making progress on the listing and would use the proceeds to strengthen its research capabilities. He did not indicate the timing or the size of the A share listing plan.

Henlius’s mission is “to make our products accessible and affordable to more patients” in China, Liu said. “We want to make the best medicine in line with the world’s highest standards,” he added without revealing the time frame or size of the listing.

Henlius’s listing will come amid intensified efforts by China to bring its biotechnology industry on par with international standards. Such businesses, which constitute about a fourth of companies listed on the Star Market in Shanghai, form a key area that Beijing wants to develop because it fears being shut out by the United States and American suppliers amid escalating tensions between two of the world’s largest economies. Biotechnology was also one of the sectors covered by its ambitious “Made in China 2025” industrial strategy.
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Henlius, which was spun off from Hong Kong and mainland China-listed Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical, launched Trastuzumab, its second biosimilar, which is also known as Zercepac, over the weekend after obtaining approvals from drug authorities in China and the European Union. The drug, available for 1,688 yuan (US$246) per 150mg vial, is to be used for treating breast and gastric cancers.
Scott Liu Shigao, Shanghai Henlius Biotech’s chief executive and co-founder. Photo: Handout
Scott Liu Shigao, Shanghai Henlius Biotech’s chief executive and co-founder. Photo: Handout
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