Partnerships and funding struggles can't hide the competitive pressure: Jingyin Pharmaceutical makes a second attempt at Hong Kong stocks

(Source: Beijing Business Daily)

With a partnership deal worth over $800 million in hand, Jingyin Pharmaceutical has once again knocked on the door of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX). After its first registration filing lapsed, on March 31 Jingyin Pharmaceutical submitted its application to HKEX again, seeking a listing on the Hong Kong stock market. As an innovative drug company focused on siRNA therapies, Jingyin Pharmaceutical has not yet achieved product commercialization. In total, its losses for 2024 and 2025 are nearly RMB 600 million. But one key collaboration has helped improve Jingyin Pharmaceutical’s financial picture on paper.

However, “blood transfusion” through collaboration is not a long-term solution, and the competitive pressure on its core product, SRSD107, cannot be ignored—from the clinical advantages of siRNA drugs in terms of patient adherence to their commercial value, it remains unknown whether Jingyin Pharmaceutical can make its final leap by leveraging the capital market.

A single collaboration supports book revenues

Like many other innovative drug companies pursuing a listing in Hong Kong, Jingyin Pharmaceutical has yet to commercialize any product. High R&D spending has kept it in a loss position for the long term. Financial data show that in 2024 and 2025, Jingyin Pharmaceutical’s R&D expenses were both RMB 213 million. In the same periods, its net losses were RMB 342 million and RMB 255 million respectively, bringing cumulative losses over the two years to nearly RMB 600 million.

However, behind the losses, a strategic collaboration significantly improved Jingyin Pharmaceutical’s book revenues, and also provided it with a certain cash-flow buffer.

In May 2025, Jingyin Pharmaceutical and CRISPR Therapeutics reached a strategic collaboration to advance the development and commercialization of SRSD107. According to Jingyin Pharmaceutical’s prospectus, CRISPR has paid a non-refundable upfront payment of $95 million, including $25 million in cash and CRISPR common shares with an estimated market value at issuance of about $70 million. In addition, CRISPR also has an exclusive right to nominate two other collaboration targets. The total milestone payments for the earlier stages and future stages exceed $800 million.

As CRISPR’s share price rose, the fair value of Jingyin Pharmaceutical’s shares in CRISPR increased significantly. According to Jingyin Pharmaceutical’s prospectus, in 2025, the fair value gain of financial assets measured at fair value through profit or loss for the period was RMB 210 million, mainly due to changes in the fair value of CRISPR shares received from the upfront payment part obtained in connection with the CRISPR collaboration. This almost offset the R&D spending for the year, and directly drove Jingyin Pharmaceutical’s other income and gains in 2025 to surge to RMB 232 million, while the figure in 2024 was only RMB 9.788 million.

Under the agreement between Jingyin Pharmaceutical and CRISPR, both parties share costs and share profits globally on a 50:50 basis to advance the development and commercialization of SRSD107, including research funding support provided based on the joint research and development plan of both parties. In its prospectus, Jingyin Pharmaceutical stated that its business development strategy is to retain all or a substantial portion of the economic interests in its core product and other major products, and its alliance with CRISPR Therapeutics AG is an example of this strategy.

Regarding this type of collaboration model, Deng Yong, a professor of health law at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and a doctoral supervisor, pointed out that in the short term, the upfront payment can effectively improve Jingyin Pharmaceutical’s book cash position and ease the cash-flow pressure caused by ongoing losses. In addition, CRISPR has mature experience in technical R&D, advancing global clinical trials, and overseas commercialization, which can also help Jingyin Pharmaceutical accelerate the development progress of its core product and quickly enter international markets. But from a long-term perspective, the 50-50 split model directly compresses the earnings space after a product is launched. If the core product becomes a blockbuster drug, Jingyin Pharmaceutical would lose half of its potential profits. Moreover, a joint decision-making mechanism may reduce the efficiency of advancing R&D and commercialization, and future project collaborations may also divert the company’s resources and time and energy.

On the relevant issues, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily sent an interview inquiry letter to Jingyin Pharmaceutical; as of the time of publication, no response had been received.

Lingering concerns behind the star pipeline

From the perspective of its product pipeline, Jingyin Pharmaceutical focuses on siRNA therapies. The prospectus discloses one core product and two key products, which respectively target today’s popular therapeutic areas: coagulation function disorder diseases, cardiac metabolic diseases, and obesity.

Among them, the core product SRSD107 is a new siRNA drug targeting coagulation factor XI. It is currently conducting Phase II multi-region clinical trials in Europe and China. The key product SRSD216 is a differentiated siRNA targeting Lp(a). It is currently running Phase IIa multi-region trials simultaneously in China and the United States. Another key product, SRSD384, is an INHBE-targeted candidate drug for obesity, and it is currently advancing its IND application.

The core product SRSD107 is Jingyin Pharmaceutical’s fastest-progressing product. Although Jingyin Pharmaceutical has reached a collaboration with CRISPR, the competitive pressure is also far from negligible. In the global competitive landscape for FXI inhibitor drugs, the FXI inhibitors from Novartis and Bayer have already initiated global Phase III clinical trials, and the FXI inhibitor SHR-2004 from Huishe has also started Phase III clinical trials in China—both of which are ahead of SRSD107. At the same time, SRSD107 also needs to face competition from existing standard-of-care therapies such as apixaban. Apixaban has already built deep clinical usage habits and market barriers thanks to annual sales exceeding 100 billion.

That said, SRSD107 still has its advantages. Phase I clinical trials have confirmed that a single subcutaneous dose of SRSD107 can reduce FXI levels by as much as 95%, with a duration of action exceeding six months, which offers a significant advantage in patient adherence. According to the prospectus, currently globally there are only five FXI-targeting siRNA drugs in development pipelines, and Jingyin Pharmaceutical’s SRSD107 ranks second in progress, behind only Rebio. However, how to convert clinical data advantages into commercialization leverage remains its core test after listing in Hong Kong.

Deng Yong said that although SRSD107 performs outstandingly in patient adherence and the FXI target has a safety profile with a low risk of bleeding, when facing the first-mover advantages of multinational pharmaceutical companies and the market barriers of established drugs, Jingyin Pharmaceutical still needs to build its competitiveness with clinical data—verifying its advantages in adherence and safety, accumulating real-world evidence, and establishing a best-in-class positioning. In terms of commercialization, it should expand overseas markets by leveraging its collaboration partner, independently deepen efforts in the Greater China region, and focus on quickly scaling up core indications such as thrombosis prevention. It will also launch innovative payment solutions to lower the threshold for using the medication. In addition, it will continuously optimize the siRNA technology platform, enrich the pipeline layout, and build a matrix of cardiovascular chronic-disease products. By leveraging a specialist medical ecosystem, it will establish channel barriers, thereby achieving a breakthrough.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Wang Yinhao, Song Yuying

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