Genscript soars 20pc as blood cancer treatment moves closer to clinical trials

Shares of Genscript Biotech jumped 20 per cent after the company said the government had accepted its application for running clinical trials for its blood cancer treatment.

The company, one of the world’s largest providers of gene synthesis services – primarily to university researchers and pharmaceutical firms – had its application for an “investigational new drug” accepted by China Food and Drug Administration.

“Subject to the approval by CFDA, [Genscript] shall be eligible to commence clinical trial of its proprietary CAR-T cell technology to treat multiple myeloma in [China],” Genscript said in a filing to Hong Kong’s bourse on Monday.

Its shares closed 19.6 per cent higher at HK$12.56, or 73.5 times next year’s consensus earnings according to a Bloomberg poll of three analysts.

The share has more than tripled so far this year, and is up sharply from its offer price of HK$1.31 two years ago.

Multiple myeloma is an incurable cancer that causes the build-up of abnormal plasma cells – a type of white blood cell – in the bone marrow.

There were an estimated 27,000 multiple myeloma patients in China in 2013, according to a paper published three years ago in the Value in Health Journal of the International Society For Pharmaco-economics and Outcomes Research.