Anesthesia sector changes dramatically, Enhua Pharmaceutical's growth "breaks the barrier"

What is the impact of industry centralized procurement on AI · Enhua Pharmaceutical’s net profit decline?

First decline in net profit since listing.

“Investor Network” Cai Jun

Recently, Enhua Pharmaceutical (002262.SZ, hereinafter referred to as “the company”)'s safety hazards have been exposed.

According to relevant reports, the company has some production safety issues. The company has responded and carried out rectification. On the other hand, the market is concerned that this is the first time since listing that the company’s net profit has declined. As of now, the company’s market value is about 22 billion yuan.

In fact, the domestic anesthesia sector is undergoing profound changes, with competing products of improved innovative drugs being launched and diverting the market. In response, the company previously deployed through multiple measures, but the results have yet to show. Facing the pattern of Renfu Medicine maintaining dominance, Hengrui Medicine competing through innovation, and Haisike targeting niche segments, the company’s breakout pressure remains.

The myth of rapid growth “breaks the golden body”

In April, the central safety production inspection team on-site found that Enhua Pharmaceutical had multiple safety hazards, including employees sleeping on duty in hazardous chemical production workshops, unauthorized construction of unapproved production lines, lack of combustible gas detectors in hydrogen storage areas, and illegal stacking of hazardous chemicals.

In response, the company stated that the safety hazards were related to the production of raw materials for an innovative drug’s clinical use, with tight schedules and heavy tasks, leading relevant personnel to adopt shift work, with high work intensity, and temporary rest nearby. Currently, the company has taken immediate measures and rectified according to the requirements of relevant departments.

Beyond safety hazards, the market is more focused on the company’s performance. By 2025, the company’s revenue will be 5.91B yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.75%; net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company will be 1.06B yuan, a decrease of 7.54% year-on-year. Since listing, the company has maintained long-term growth in net profit. In other words, the growth myth of the company in 2025 has broken the “golden body.”

Regarding this, the company attributes the performance change to the industry background of product centralized procurement and medical insurance cost control. As a first-tier anesthetic drug, the expansion of centralized procurement has indeed affected the company’s core products such as etomidate and midazolam, leading to price reductions. Meanwhile, the company continues to increase investment in transformation, coupled with expenses for new drug academic promotion and overseas pipeline introduction, putting pressure on profits.

From a higher industry perspective, the “break” of the company’s growth “golden body” is a microcosm of the deep transformation of the domestic anesthesia sector. Before 2021, as essential surgical drugs with strong regulation, these products benefited from a stock of generics and high-margin periods. Renfu Medicine remained the absolute leader in fentanyl-type drugs, with etomidate and midazolam continuously increasing volume, ranking second.

But after 2023, the rules of the sector have been reshaped by policy changes. On one hand, nationwide drug centralized procurement continues to expand, and anesthesia and psychotropic non-controlled drugs are included in the procurement system for the first time, ending the era of high margins. On the other hand, many improved innovative drugs have been approved in concentration, shifting competition toward innovation, formulation upgrades, pain management segmentation, and scene expansion. In short, the rules of the game have changed, strategies have upgraded, and more players have entered.

On the product side, improved innovative anesthetics such as Hengrui’s Toluene Sulfonate Remimazolam, Haisike’s Remimazolam, and Renfu’s Benzothiazole Remimazolam have been launched, precisely replacing traditional general anesthesia categories. Among these, some competitors target specific products, such as Haisike’s Remimazolam aiming at the company’s Forlix. In other words, improved anesthetic new drugs have to some extent diverted the existing market.

On the channel side, internet hospitals have become an incremental channel, and online prescription circulation has become central to psychotropic drugs. Therefore, the competition dimension in the sector has upgraded from single product sales to an ecosystem of “drugs + medical services + digital channels.”

“Dual layout of business + capital”

Currently, the pattern in the anesthesia sector has entered a multi-strong competition. Enhua Pharmaceutical faces a four-sided pattern: Renfu Medicine maintaining dominance, Hengrui innovating, Haisike targeting niches, and Yuandong supplementing pipelines.

By 2025, the company’s core revenue still comes from anesthesia products, with sales of 3.12B yuan, accounting for 52.72% of total revenue, a slight increase of 1.84%. Meanwhile, sales of psychotropic products are 1.19B yuan, down 1.13% year-on-year; neuro-related products amount to 370 million yuan, up 67.46%.

Moreover, the pattern in the anesthesia sector is quietly shifting. In 2025, Renfu Medicine announced that its controlling shareholder would change to China Merchants Shengke, ending the “Contemporary” era of leadership. At the same time, Haisike has become a new darling of capital, with a market value surpassing 65 billion yuan, driven by overseas achievements, including selling related rights of its drugs to AbbVie.

In fact, the company has also responded internally. On one hand, founder Sun Pengsheng’s son, Sun Jiaquan, has gradually taken over, from sales positions to the current general manager. On the other hand, the company has made different layouts at both business and capital levels.

Since 2018, the company has built a “self-developed + overseas introduction” dual-innovation pipeline. Its self-developed focus is on the improved new drug NH600001 based on etomidate, and it has partnered with Danish company Lundbeck, American Trevena, Singapore TEVA, and Green Leaf Pharmaceuticals to introduce drugs for schizophrenia, rare neurological diseases, and long-acting antipsychotic injections.

Not only that, the company previously incubated the mental health internet medical platform HaoXinQing, deploying online doctor-patient channels, and optimized organizational structure by establishing various specialized divisions.

In terms of results, the company’s deployment is still in the climbing stage. On the R&D side, self-developed improved drugs and introduced drugs will be commercially launched this year. On the capital side, HaoXinQing has built a red-chip structure, planning to promote overseas listing.

Ultimately, facing increasingly competitive patterns, the company’s early deployment has yet to reach full harvest. It is evident that only a few new drugs have achieved commercialization, which has optimized the product structure and stabilized the fundamentals. However, most of the innovative pipelines are still in clinical or early commercialization stages, with ongoing growth pressure.

Do you believe the company can break through in the anesthesia sector? Welcome to discuss in the comments. (Produced by Think Finance)