Restart of IPO Review under the SSE STAR Market's Fifth Set of Standards, with Healthgen Biotechnology to Be Reviewed by the Listing Review Committee

Translated from Yicai

Wuhan Healthgen Biotechnology Corp., which has been waiting for two and a half years, will be reviewed by the Listing Review Committee. This is the first enterprise applying for listing with the fifth set of SSE STAR Market standards to be reviewed by the Listing Review Committee after Wu Qing, Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, announced at the Lujiazui Forum on June 18 that a growth tier would be set up in the SSE STAR Market and the fifth set of SSE STAR Market listing standards would apply to unprofitable enterprises again.

On the evening of June 24, the Listing Review Committee of SSE issued an announcement on a review meeting scheduled for July 1 to review the issuance and listing application of Wuhan Healthgen Biotechnology Corp. (hereinafter referred to as "Healthgen Biotechnology"), a company proposed to be listed on the SSE STAR Market.

Healthgen Biotechnology's IPO application was accepted on December 29, 2022, and entered the inquiry stage on January 19, 2023. After waiting for more than two years, it will be reviewed by the Listing Review Committee.

The prospectus shows that Healthgen Biotechnology was established in 2006 as a biopharmaceutical company mainly engaged in the R&D of innovative drugs. Currently, its revenue primarily comes from non-core products such as pharmaceutic adjuvants and research reagents. Core innovative drugs are under development and have not yet generated revenue.

According to public data, from 2022 to 2024, the company's cumulative R&D investment reached 386 million yuan. By the end of 2024, Healthgen Biotechnology had a total of 178 employees, including 122 R&D personnel, accounting for nearly 70%.

On June 18, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued Opinions on Setting up a Science and Technology Innovation Growth Tier in the SSE STAR Market to Enhance Institutional Inclusiveness and Adaptability. The document specifies that the science and technology innovation growth tier mainly serves technology-based companies with significant breakthroughs, promising business prospects, huge continuous R&D investment, and no profit at the current stage.

Besides, the SSE STAR Market has launched six reform measures, including expanding the applicability of the fifth set of standards; piloting the introduction of the senior professional institutional investor system for enterprises subject to the fifth set of listing standards of the SSE STAR Market; piloting the IPO pre-review mechanism for high-quality technology-based companies; and supporting unprofitable technology-based companies under review to carry out activities such as capital increase and share expansion for existing shareholders.

Among the enterprises currently in line, those applying to adopt the fifth set of SSE STAR Market standards for listing include Guangzhou BeBetter Medicine Technology Co., Ltd., Hrain Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Harbin Sagebot Intelligent Medical Equipment Co., Ltd., and Insight Lifetech Co., Ltd. The IPO process (except for suspension) of these companies was stuck before June 26, 2023.

Since Chongqing Genrix Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (688443.SH) went public on June 20, 2023, no company has adopted the fifth set of standards for listing on the SSE STAR Market over the last two years.

Currently, the 20 companies listed on the SSE STAR Market with the fifth set of standards are all in the biopharmaceutical industry. Among them, 19 are innovative drug R&D enterprises and one is a high-end medical device R&D company.

In 2024, the total operating revenue of the 20 companies exceeded 14 billion yuan, an increase of more than 40% compared with that in 2023. Among them, 16 companies had a revenue of over 100 million yuan and four enterprises achieved a revenue of more than 1 billion yuan. Four companies, including Shanghai Allist Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., Sinocelltech Group Limited, Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co., Ltd., and RemeGen Co., Ltd., had a total revenue of 9.736 billion yuan, accounting for about 70% of the total revenue of companies listed with the fifth set of standards. The revenue of four companies, including CanSino Biologics Inc., Bio-Thera Solutions, Ltd., Suzhou Zelgen Biopharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., and Dizal (Jiangsu) Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., is expected to exceed 1 billion yuan in the next two years. In Q1 2025, companies listed with the fifth set of standards maintained a growth trend, with total operating revenue of 3.78 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.27%.

As of June 2025, among the 20 companies listed with the fifth set of standards, 19 have launched core products and one has submitted an application for launch. According to preliminary statistics, from 2018 to Q1 2025, companies listed with the SSE STAR Market's fifth set of standards have launched 17 Class 1 innovative drugs to the market, accounting for about 12% of the total number of domestic innovative drugs approved in the same period.

In terms of R&D investment, the 20 companies invested an average of 500 million yuan in 2024, higher than the A-share average of 364 million yuan. In 2024, companies listed with the fifth set of standards added six Class 1 innovative drugs, and seven indications of six products were included in breakthrough therapy varieties.

The above information is provided for reference purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.