Shares of drug company BeiGene soar in US

The share price of Nasdaq-listed Chinese biopharmaceutical company BeiGene more than tripled in 2017 even though its products have not yet been put on the market, indicating investors' strong interest in the company's offerings.

Even though it's rare for a company's share price to skyrocket when its products are yet to be offered, a report from the Motley Fool, a US investment analytics website, indicates there is still more potential for the stock to grow, supported by BeiGene's fundamentals.

BeiGene is a commercial-stage, research-based biopharmaceutical company focused on molecularly targeted and immune-oncology cancer therapeutics. Its share price rose from some $30 to more than $96 in 2017, with capitalization of about $4.4 billion.

The capital market "is showing strong interest in innovative biopharmaceutical projects in China and abroad. For successful investment, long-term strategies and investors with great vision and patience are key", said a research report at Healthcare Executives, a professional healthcare journal.

Besides BeiGene, several other Chinese biotech companies are also favored in global capital markets, such as cancer therapeutics biotech BeyondSpring and Zai Lab, a Shanghai-based biopharmaceutical company that focuses on transformative medicines for cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases. Both BeyondSpring and Zai Lab went public on the Nasdaq in 2017.

John Oyler, founder and chief executive officer and chairman of BeiGene, said the company hopes its original products will be successfully offered in China to enable patients to benefit from the drugs in affordable manner.

BeiGene has established a manufacturing base in Suzhou, Jiangsu province that can produce up to 100 million capsules annually, meeting the demands of some 20,000 to 50,000 patients. It also has a macromolecular biotics manufacturing base under construction in Guangzhou. The two plants are preparing to produce the company's new drugs, which are still in clinical research stage and yet to be commercialized.

According to data from IMS, a pharmaceutical and healthcare consultancy services provider, China is the world's second largest consumer of medicine, after the US.

Chinese healthcare and medicine regulators have also made efforts to reform the drug review and approval system, which shortens time for a new drug to be widely used and encourages innovations and enables investors to achieve returns in a shorter period of time, said Song Ruilin, executive president of China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Research Development Association, at a recent conference.

wuyiyao@chinadaily.com.cn