SINOPEP's Success in the Peptide Drug Market

2024-06-27

SINOPEP's main source of revenue is its series of products, namely active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). According to the company's 2023 annual report, the revenue from its semaglutide series products reached 125 million yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 571.41%. Over the past year, SINOPEP has successfully signed two strategic cooperation agreements for API, including a semaglutide injection strategic cooperation agreement for the European region and a strategic cooperation agreement for oral semaglutide API in Latin America.

According to SINOPEP's 2023 financial report, the company's investments and achievements in the peptide field are evident. The "106 workshop peptide API product transformation project", an IPO-funded project, has been successfully put into production. As a third-generation peptide production workshop, it is equipped with industry-leading industrial robots, DCS automatic control systems, fully-closed production systems, fully-automated synthesis systems, fully-automated cleavage systems, and imported liquid chromatography production lines, realizing the digitalization, intelligence, and scale of the production process, and enabling the company's peptide API production capacity to reach a ton-level scale. Furthermore, the company is simultaneously planning to build new peptide production workshops, and by the end of 2025, the peptide API production capacity is expected to reach a multi-ton level.

Leveraging its over 20 years of in-depth experience and an experienced peptide large-scale production management team, SINOPEP has successfully achieved a single-batch production volume of more than 10 kilograms for multiple long-chain modified peptide APIs, including semaglutide. It is worth noting that among the five semaglutide API enterprises registered with the CDE, SINOPEP is the only one with a packaging specification of 1 kg/bag.

In 2023, SINOPEP achieved remarkable results in the peptide field, including a CDMO cooperation for a GLP-1 innovative drug API with a well-known domestic biopharmaceutical company, a strategic cooperation agreement for semaglutide injection in the European region, a strategic cooperation agreement for oral semaglutide API in Latin America, and a long-term CDMO supply contract with a large European pharmaceutical company, with a total contract value of $102 million, planned to be delivered in a stepwise manner starting from 2024.

From a market perspective, the product structure of the Chinese peptide drug market differs significantly from the mature international market. Domestic peptide drug sales are mainly concentrated in anti-tumor and immunomodulatory products, while the three main drivers of the peptide drug market in developed countries like Europe and the United States are oncology, diabetes, and rare diseases. Compared to developed countries, China still has a vast growth potential in the peptide drug market for the treatment of diseases such as diabetes and rare diseases.

As a peptide CXO company, SINOPEP has clearly benefited from the explosive growth of the industry. Similarly, Sheng Nuo Biology, a peptide CDMO company listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, saw a 27% increase in revenue and a 17% increase in net profit in the first quarter of 2024, and has provided CDMO services for over 40 peptide innovative drug projects for drug development companies and research institutions. In addition, companies such as Wuxi AppTec and JIUZHOU Pharmaceutical have also achieved remarkable results in the peptide field, demonstrating the prosperity and potential of the peptide industry. Faced with this trend, many companies are actively seeking financing to take the lead in the peptide CXO race.