He Yuan Bio's first year as a listed company: cutting-edge technology supports a market value of over 20 billion yuan, but the difficulty in hiding losses remains

Chinatimes.net.cn Reporter Zhao Wenjuan and Na Beijing Report

A highly anticipated “black technology” product, a revenue nearly doubled, and a stock price rally of over 350%—if you only look at the surface, HeYuan Biotech seems to have delivered a good report card for 2025. But when the noise subsides, this biotech company, known as the “first stock to generate blood from rice,” must face a more realistic question: ongoing losses, single product line, limited market space, patent litigation uncertainties, and other operational challenges.

(Screenshot from 2025 performance brief)

Unbreaking the Loss Curse

From key financial data, HeYuan Biotech’s revenue growth in 2025 is indeed attractive. The performance brief shows that during the reporting period, the company achieved a total operating income of 47.86 million yuan, an increase of 89.80% year-over-year, nearly doubling—this is the first positive growth since the company went public. The company attributes this growth mainly to the commercialization breakthrough of its core product—the world’s first rice-derived recombinant human albumin injection, OfoMin® (HY1001)—which was approved for market launch in July 2025. It quickly opened up the market and achieved sales breakthroughs, becoming the sole driver of revenue growth. As clinical promotion at the terminal gradually advances and product recognition slowly increases, this supported the year’s revenue increase.

However, high revenue growth did not translate into profit; instead, the company’s losses deepened, which is the most critical hidden risk in this report. Data shows that in 2025, HeYuan Biotech’s net loss attributable to shareholders was 158 million yuan, and net loss after non-recurring items was 176 million yuan—both negative and larger than the previous year. Over a longer period, the company has been stuck in a cycle of continuous losses: from 2022 to 2024, net losses attributable to shareholders were 144 million yuan, 187 million yuan, and 151 million yuan respectively, with cumulative non-recurring net losses exceeding 480 million yuan. Even with the successful上市 and sales of core products, the company has not escaped the “burning money” model, and in its first year of listing, it still failed to reach an inflection point of profitability.

Regarding the reasons for ongoing losses, the company states that its annual production capacity of 10 tons of recombinant human albumin bulk and formulations on a cGMP intelligent production line is still in the ramp-up phase, and the scale effect has yet to be realized. Additionally, as an innovative drug company, it maintains high R&D investment for core technology optimization, new indications clinical research, and pipeline development. The large R&D expenses combined with capacity construction costs ultimately keep the company in a loss-making state.

Bai Wenxi, Vice Chairman of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance, told Huaxia Times, “HeYuan Biotech is currently facing the typical challenge of innovative drug companies from 0 to 1—single product but expandable, revenue growth but lagging profit. In the medium to long term, its plant-derived recombinant albumin’s technological barriers and cost advantages (no dependence on plasma, large-scale cultivation) still hold strategic value, but short-term focus should be on tracking the progress of indication expansion and capacity ramp-up efficiency.”

Meanwhile, the only approved product, OfoMin® (HY1001), is currently only approved for a specific indication—hypoalbuminemia in liver cirrhosis (≤30g/L). Data shows that the patient population for this indication is expected to decrease from 567,000 in 2022 to 455,000 in 2030, indicating a shrinking market space. In contrast, major players in the traditional plasma-derived albumin field have product matrices covering various core applications such as shock, burns, and surgery. If OfoMin® cannot be quickly expanded to more indications or if new growth points are not cultivated in the short term, the current growth curve may soon hit a ceiling.

Gao Chengyuan, Director of the Influence Research Institute, told this reporter, “The current market ceiling for OfoMin® is quite clear, but this is only a temporary phenomenon. The real risk lies in the timing window—if indication expansion is slower than expected and competitors like Tonghua Anruite accelerate their布局, the ceiling will be substantially lowered. The current valuation already reflects the fragility of a single product; investors should pay attention to the 2026 medical insurance negotiations and overseas clinical progress, which are key variables to breaking the ceiling.”

Notably, in 2025, the company’s asset scale saw a dramatic increase. By the end of the reporting period, total assets reached 3.702 billion yuan, a surge of 248.65% from the beginning of the year. Shareholders’ equity attributable to the parent company soared 381.75% to 2.897 billion yuan, seemingly indicating a significant improvement in financial health, but in reality, this was not from operational accumulation; it was entirely due to the funds raised from the IPO. Meanwhile, the company’s share capital increased from 268 million yuan to 358 million yuan, a 33.37% increase, and net asset per share rose from 2.24 yuan to 8.10 yuan—an increase of over 260%. Essentially, this is an external “blood transfusion” from the capital market, not an internal “self-sustaining blood production.” The dividend of financing will eventually run out; if the company cannot achieve自主盈利 in the short term, its future capital pressure and operational risks will further intensify.

Dual Risks Loom

Beyond operational challenges, HeYuan Biotech also faces significant “hidden reefs” in compliance and legal dimensions.

The most urgent is the risk related to agricultural GMO compliance. The core of the company’s “rice-derived blood production” technology relies on genetically modified rice cultivation. There were reports that as of November 2025, the company had not obtained the biosafety certificate for GMO organisms. More critically, the company’s GMO rice planting area has exceeded 9,000 acres, far beyond the approved 5,180 acres of experimental planting, constituting超范围种植. If the company cannot obtain the relevant safety certificates in time, its core raw material production could face suspension, directly impacting the production and sales of its core products.

If compliance issues are the “Damocles sword” hanging over the company, then international patent litigation is a prolonged消耗战. Over the past five years, HeYuan Biotech has been embroiled in patent disputes with US-based Ventria.公告 shows that Ventria accused HeYuan of infringing its core patents on rice-derived recombinant human serum albumin. The company’s actual controller曾在Ventria任职, further fueling market doubts about patent infringement. In March 2024, HeYuan filed a countersuit, accusing Ventria’s products of infringing its US patents and seeking damages; in August 2025, Ventria withdrew its infringement claims, but the counterclaim filed by HeYuan is still under trial. The final outcome is highly uncertain—if lost, the company could face substantial compensation and its technological independence could be seriously questioned, damaging its brand and operations.

Litigation costs are not only uncertain—they have already left tangible marks on the financials. The company disclosed that expenses related to the Ventria lawsuit were recorded under management fees for professional services. From 2022 to the first half of 2025, this account had spent over 60 million yuan. For an innovative biotech still climbing out of losses, this ongoing expenditure of “battle funds” further strains its already tight cost structure.

The Huaxia Times reporter attempted to contact HeYuan Biotech for interview but received no response as of press time.

The secondary market also votes with its feet. On October 28, 2025, HeYuan Biotech listed on the STAR Market, with the debut opening at 88 yuan, closing up 213.49%, and a market cap once exceeding 30 billion yuan. In early November, the stock price soared to a high of 132.02 yuan, a rise of over 354% from the issue price—an exuberant celebration of technological imagination.

However, as market sentiment waned and performance pressures emerged, the stock began to decline. As of March 13, the stock closed at 70.7 yuan per share, nearly halving from its peak, with market value falling back to 25.3 billion yuan.

For HeYuan Biotech, after the hype, the key challenge will be how to support its billion-yuan market cap with solid performance and robust R&D progress in the future.