Hong Kong-listed Chinese drug firms set to turn corner on rising sales, licensing deals

Hong Kong-listed mainland Chinese pharmaceutical companies are on track to deliver full-year profits, as surging drug sales and lucrative out-licensing deals with global partners start to pay off after years of research and development outlay.“Despite domestic challenges, particularly drug pricing pressure, the earnings performance of innovative drugs should still fare well in China in 2025,” said Tony Ren, head of Asia Healthcare Research at Macquarie Capital.Innovent Biologics, the first Chinese company cleared to sell a drug for weight loss and diabetes, is expected to post its first full-year profit since going public – 984 million yuan (US$143.5 million) in 2025 – compared with a loss of 94.63 million yuan in 2024, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.Revenue at Innovent, best known for its cancer treatment drug development, jumped about 45 per cent in 2025 to roughly 11.9 billion yuan, marking a “historic milestone”, the company said in a filing on February 4. The company, which launched six new products last year, releases its earnings release in late March.A worker checks a bottle filling fixture at a preparation workshop of Hengrui Biomedical Industrial Park in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province. Photo: Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty ImagesFounded in 2011, Innovent was one of the first batch of firms to go public in 2018 under a new Hong Kong listing rule that let pre-revenue and loss-making drug and medical device developers raise capital.