Financial Highlights of the year ended December 31, 2021:
HONGKONG, March 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 28, 2022, Viva Biotech Holdings (1873.HK) announced that during the year ended December 31, 2021 (the "Reporting Period"), the revenue of the Group increased significantly to RMB2,104.1 million from RMB697.0 million for the corresponding period last year, representing a YoY increase of approximately 201.9%, gross profit increased substantially from RMB304.9 million for the corresponding period last year to RMB651.0 million, representing a YoY increase of 113.5%. The adjusted net profit of the Group increased from RMB252.3 million for the corresponding period last year to RMB352.5 million, representing a YoY increase of 39.7%.
The increase was mainly attributable to the rapid growth of the Company's CRO business and the increase in revenue arising from the acquisition of Zhejiang Langhua Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. ("Langhua Pharmaceutical"). Based on innovation and deep integration of resources, the Company continued to provide clients with one-stop integrated services from structure-based drug research and development to commercial drug delivery.
CRO Business Continued to Grow Rapidly
During the Reporting Period, the Company's revenue from CRO business increased significantly by approximately 68.7%, from RMB438.8 million for the corresponding period of last year to RMB740.4 million. The order backlog amounted to approximately RMB965.0 million, representing a significant increase of approximately 58.9% from RMB607.0 million for the corresponding period of last year, which provides sufficient impetus for future growth.
The Company had delivered more than 34,000 protein structures to clients, approximately 13,134 newly delivered, a YoY increase of 73.8%, and conducted R&D on over 1,800 independent drug targets, 226 of which were newly added. The cumulative number of clients served had increased to 1,032, including the global top 10 pharmaceutical companies (by reported total revenue for 2021) and 41 companies included in Fierce Biotech's Fierce 15, with the top 10 clients accounting for 26.8% of revenue. The Company's clients are geographically diverse and primarily located in the United States, contributing approximately 72.5% of the revenue. And the revenue from Mainland China accounted for approximately 16.1% of the total, a YoY increase of approximately 83.8%.
In 2021, the Company used synchrotron radiation source for 1,934 hours and maintained long-term cooperation with 12 synchrotron radiation source facilities around the world, which are distributed in nine countries/regions, including Shanghai of China, the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Taiwan of China to ensure uninterrupted data collection throughout the year.
Increasing Investment in CDMO Capacity and Strengthening CMC Capacity Building
During the Reporting Period, the Group made great efforts to strengthen the strategic integration of Langhua Pharmaceutical, intensifying the construction of CMC R&D centers for technology build-up, strengthening client outreach and business development activities for business growth, and accelerating production capacity building for production expansion. Langhua Pharmaceutical's revenue for the year amounted to RMB1363.6 million, representing a YoY decrease of 10.2%, mainly due to the limited production capacity caused by the upgrade of the T10 plant in the first half of the year, exchange rate changes, and the impact of COVID-19. As of December 31, 2021, Langhua Pharmaceutical had served a total of 788 clients, with the top ten clients accounting for 54.0% of its revenue, representing a continued optimization of the revenue structure. The retention rate of the top ten clients was 100%.
In respect of CDMO capacity building, the upgrade of the T10 plant was completed in September, and the T02 plant entered the commissioning stage after equipment installation was completed in December. During the Reporting Period, the annual usable capacity was 671 cubic meters, and the capacity utilization rate was 70%, a relatively high level. It is expected that the T02 plant will be formally put into operation in 2022, with a new capacity of 189 cubic meters.
In respect of CMC, the Group intensified the construction of R&D centers and increased R&D personnel. A CMC R&D center of approximately 10,000 square meters was partially put into use in December. The center is located in the Group's headquarters in Zhoupu, Shanghai, and contains a 3,000-square-meter GMP formulation plant. As at the end of the Reporting Period, the number of CMC R&D personnel had reached 120. In 2022, the Group will strengthen efforts to expand the R&D personnel.
Focusing on Global Biopharmaceutical Innovation for EFS Investment Business
During the Reporting Period, the Company reviewed a total of over 979 projects globally, added 20 start-ups to the portfolio companies, made additional investments in 7 existing portfolio companies, and was in negotiation for investment in 28 new companies. The Group had invested in a total of 87 portfolio companies with an average agreed shareholding of 19%. The portfolio companies are mainly from the United States, Canada, Europe and China. 75.8% of the portfolio companies are from North America and 19.5% from China.
In 2021, 14 of the portfolio companies completed a new round of financing, raising over US$360 million in total. The R&D efforts of the portfolio companies were progressing smoothly, with the total number of pipeline projects increasing to 185, of which 20 had entered the clinical stage. On June 14, 2021, AbSci Corporation (NASDAQ: ABSI), a synthetic biology company, announced that it had reached an acquisition agreement with Totient Inc..
Continued to Build Technology Barriers
During the Reporting Period, the Group's R&D spending was RMB92.4 million, representing a YoY increase of 40.0% from RMB66.0 million. For CRO business, the Group proactively built capabilities in Micro ED of Cryo-EM, artificial intelligence (AI) technology-assisted drug research and development, antibody and macromolecule discovery, and photochemical reaction platform; for CDMO business, the Group strengthened automation transformation during the Reporting Period to further improve the level of production automation. In terms of process development, the Group continued to develop flow chemistry technology, catalyst and ligand screening platform, oral product production lines, injectable dosage form development platform, amorphous solid dispersion technology, etc.
Further Expanded the Scale of Staff and Facilities
As at December 31, 2021, the Group had a total of 2,127 employees. And the Company has been accelerating the construction of office and laboratory facilities in line with its workforce expansion plans and expanding production capacity to meet the fast-growing business needs.
Dr. Cheney Mao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Viva Biotech Holdings, said, "With unique advantages in structure-based drug discovery (SBDD), we will continue to strengthen the construction of a one-stop drug R&D and manufacturing service platform, deepen the synergy between CRO and CDMO business, improve the capacity building for front-end services and drive business to back-end services to further enhance the business funnel effect. The Company is in an effort to establish an open eco-system for global biopharma and biotech."
About Viva Biotech Holdings
Established in 2008, Viva Biotech (01873.HK) provides one-stop services from early-stage Structure-Based Drug R&D to commercial drug delivery to global biopharmaceutical innovators. Leveraging the technical advantages in the field of Structure-based Drug Discovery (SBDD), we provide leading CRO drug discovery services and CMC / CDMO services throughout the whole drug production process to global biopharmaceutical clients. At the same time, we focus on finding and investing in high potential biotech start-ups, solve unmet clinical medical needs in the form of EFS (service for equity), and continue to build an open cooperation platform and win-win ecosystem for biotech innovation.
As of December 31, 2021, Viva Biotech has provided drug R&D and production services to 1,820 biotech and pharmaceutical clients around the world. We have invested and incubated 87 biotech start-ups in total. In the future, the Company will continue to strengthen its technical barriers, improve R&D and production level, and the service capacity, so as to provide high-quality and diversified services for more drug discovery start-ups, as well as the medium and large pharmaceutical enterprises around the world. We hope to benefit more patients through Viva's platform.