The first year of commercialization for the antibody-drug conjugate star Kelun Botai falls short of market expectations.

Ask AI · Can sales grow against the odds after Kangbolong sattuzumab antibody coverage is added to medical insurance?

Interface News reporter | Huang Hua

Interface News editor | Xie Xin

On March 23, Kelun-Botai announced its 2025 financial report. During the period, the company generated revenue of RMB 2.058 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%. During the period, it posted a loss of RMB 382 million, slightly larger than that of the same period.

On March 24, Kelun-Botai rose more than 4% intraday. As of the close on March 24, the company’s share price was HK$421 per share, up 5.89%, with a total market value of HK$98.2 billion. On the morning of March 25, the company’s share price continued to rise.

For 2025 performance, on March 24, Kelun-Botai told Interface News that the drivers of revenue growth during the period came from two parts: product commercialization ramp-up and milestone payments.

Regarding the 확대 of losses, Kelun-Botai told Interface News that the main reason was that with products reaching the market, the company’s commercialization team expanded rapidly. During the period, the company formed a team of over 600 people and built a corresponding commercialization system. In addition, its R&D spending was also higher than in 2024.

The reason to pay attention to Kelun-Botai’s operating performance is that this drug company is a representative player in the domestic antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) field, and changes in its performance can reflect the commercialization status of this class of drugs in China.

Kelun-Botai’s product pipeline | Screenshot by Interface News reporter

Currently, in the antibody-drug conjugate segment, Kelun-Botai has two commercialized ADC products: TROP2 ADC sacituzumab govitecan (sac-TMT, Jialetai) and HER2 ADC pertuzumab seroleucel (Shoutai Lai). Their first approvals were in November 2024 and October 2025, respectively.

Sacituzumab govitecan is the first domestically developed TROP2 ADC approved and launched in China, and it is also the first domestically developed ADC in China that received full approval for launch.

In the first half of 2025, out of Kelun-Botai’s RMB 309.8 million total commercial sales, sacituzumab govitecan accounted for 97.6%. That means this product sold roughly RMB 300 million within half a year.

However, based on Kelun-Botai’s financial reports, the ramp-up performance of sacituzumab govitecan in the second half of 2025 was not satisfactory.

The company’s financial report shows that for all of 2025, Kelun-Botai’s total drug revenue was RMB 543 million. In other words, the second-half sales of sacituzumab govitecan were worse than the first half. If inferred from the share in the first half, its full-year revenue would be around RMB 500 million.

But this is not a small gap compared with the predictions of many brokerages in mid-2025. For example, in a research note published in July 2025, as quoted by the Economic Daily, UBS Securities stated that the sales target for sacituzumab govitecan in China’s market in 2025 was about RMB 800 million–1.0 billion.

For the actual 2025 sales of Kelun-Botai’s core ADC product, Goldman Sachs said that sacituzumab govitecan in 2025 was mainly sold on a self-pay basis, meaning patient accessibility was limited, and the company’s product sales fell short of expectations. Of course, starting from January 1 of this year, sacituzumab govitecan has been included in the national medical insurance catalog, covering both non-small cell lung cancer and triple-negative breast cancer.

In addition, RMB 500 million in annual drug revenue accounts for only one-quarter of Kelun-Botai’s total revenue of RMB 2.0 billion, indicating that drug sales account for a very limited portion. This reflects that the company’s revenue still mainly relies on external commercial licensing.

Chart by: Interface News reporter Huang Hua

Kelun-Botai was founded in 2016, and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in July 2023. Before and around the IPO, the most common label attached to Kelun-Botai was “Kelun family company.” It was once considered merely a biopharmaceutical company under the infusion king’s umbrella. But as domestic attention to antibody-drug conjugates increased, Kelun-Botai quickly became a focus in the industry.

On the day of listing, Kelun-Botai’s market capitalization was HK$13.5 billion. After that, the company became a favorite in the capital markets. In June 2025, Kelun-Botai completed a HK stock placement of $250 million, setting a record for the largest new share issuance size that year in Hong Kong-listed biotech and pharmaceutical stocks. On August 5, 2025, the company’s market capitalization first exceeded HK$100 billion.

From the perspective of the company’s development stage, Kelun-Botai is currently in the early phase where its first batch of products has just entered commercialization. In addition to sacituzumab govitecan and pertuzumab seroleucel, tazarotene (Kotailai) and cetuximab N01 (Daitailai) were approved in January 2025 and February 2025, respectively.

Although the sales performance of its core antibody-drug conjugates in 2025 fell short of market expectations, over the two-year period from 2024 to 2025, Kelun-Botai’s drug revenue increased from RMB 50 million to a scale of RMB 500 million. In the same period, the company’s revenue from licensing and collaboration agreements was approximately RMB 1.8 billion and RMB 1.5 billion, respectively.

Among many innovative drug companies, Kelun-Botai is one of the domestic early movers that announced large-scale international licensing collaboration. For example, in 2022, it reached licensing transactions with Merck several times, with the highest cumulative total value exceeding $10 billion. The fact that a large portion of the company’s revenue comes from licensing collaborations also reflects its achievements in this direction.

However, while commercial licensing transactions can promptly supplement cash flow and lay the foundation for the company’s international development, how much milestone revenue the company can subsequently obtain is uncertain. Judging from Kelun-Botai’s financial data, this type of revenue saw a slight decline between 2024 and 2025, which also caused the company’s revenue growth to slow down somewhat.

Overall, within three years of listing, Kelun-Botai has maintained stable revenue growth, while losses have stayed roughly within the same order of magnitude. Whether the company can further prove its commercial value will still require ongoing attention to the sales performance of its products after this point.

Looking at the subsequent pipeline, Kelun-Botai still has a number of antibody-drug conjugates in hand. For example, CLDN18.2 ADC SKB315, Nectin-4 ADC, SKB410, and dual-antibody ADC SKB571, among others.