Junshi Becomes First Dual-listed Biopharma Firm After $692m STAR IPO

Junshi Biosciences has become the first Chinese biopharmaceutical company to float shares on both the mainland and Hong Kong stock exchanges, after the company raised nearly 4.84 billion yuan ($692 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style STAR Market on Wednesday.

Shanghai-based Junshi sold an aggregate of 87.13 million shares at a price of 55.5 yuan ($7.94) apiece, raising a total amount of about 4.84 billion yuan and a net amount of almost 4.50 billion yuan ($643 million). The IPO offering was about 60 per cent larger than the initially-planned size of 2.7 billion yuan ($386 million).

The mainland listing comes roughly one and half years after Junshi went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) in a $394-million IPO in December 2018, after the city’s bourse changed rules that April to allow listings from pre-revenue biotech companies.

Established in 2012, Junshi Biosciences focuses on the development of first-in-class drug candidates with therapeutic areas covering cancer, metabolic diseases, autoimmune diseases, and neurologic diseases. The company has developed a product line consisting 21 drug candidates, including 13 independently-developed, original innovative drugs and eight drugs jointly developed with partners.

Junshi’s product types include monoclonal antibodies, fusion proteins, antibody-drug conjugates, and small molecule drugs. Its first product JS001 (anti-PD-1 mAb; Toripalimab) was officially launched for sale in February 2019 with an approved indication of locally advanced or metastatic melanoma after standard treatment failure.

Earlier this week, Swiss contract drug manufacturer Lonza Group announced that Junshi had licensed its technology to help produce a neutralizing antibody against the COVID-19. Lonza said in a statement that Junshi’s first neutralizing antibody against the novel coronavirus, dubbed “JS016,” had entered clinical trials in China, with the first healthy volunteer dosed on June 8 in an early-stage safety study.

According to its latest financial results, Junshi’s total revenue stood at 775 million yuan ($111 million) in 2019, mainly due to the sales of the debut product JS001. The company’s R&D expenses were 946 million yuan ($135 million) in 2019, up 75.8 per cent from that in 2018.

Following the STAR Market IPO, Junshi CEO and chairman Jun Xiong remains the largest shareholder with a 10.01 per cent stake. Chinese state-owned property developer Greenland Group owns 1.33 per cent shares through its investment arm, Greenland Financial Holdings Group. 

Asia-focused private equity major Hillhouse Capital holds a 2.89 per cent equity interest in Junshi through an affiliate, down by 0.32 per cent from its stake prior to the listing.

Junshi’s shares are listed under the symbol “688180” on the STAR Market. Chinese investment firm China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC) served as the lead underwriter of the deal.