CStone Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company based in China and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKG: 2616), has reported its interim financial results for 2024, along with key business highlights. For the six months ending June 30, 2024, the company’s revenue reached RMB 254.2 million, which includes RMB 118.3 million from the sales of pharmaceutical products (avapritinib and pralsetinib), RMB 122.6 million from license fee income, and RMB 13.3 million from royalty income of sugemalimab. The increase of RMB 122.6 million in license fee income largely compensated for a RMB 128.6 million decrease in pharmaceutical product sales, resulting in a slight overall revenue reduction of RMB 7.3 million, or 2.8%, compared to the previous period. The profit for the period, excluding share-based payment expenses, was RMB 10.8 million, driven by a significant reduction in operating expenses and an increase in gross profit.
Research and development (R&D) expenses for 2024 were RMB 66.2 million, marking a decrease of RMB 120.6 million from the RMB 186.8 million spent in the same period of the previous year. This reduction is mainly attributed to a decrease in milestone fees, third-party contracting costs, and employee expenses.
In May 2024, CStone Pharma entered into a strategic collaboration with Ewopharma to commercialize sugemalimab in Switzerland and 18 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Following this, in July, the company forged a partnership with Hengrui to commercialize Ayvakit in mainland China.
CStone Pharma has received approval for a New Drug Application (NDA) for sugemalimab, a PD-L1 inhibitor, for the treatment of first-line gastric cancer in China. The NDA for Stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is currently under review by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The company anticipates submitting additional Marketing Authorization Applications (MAAs) to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for other indications of sugemalimab, including Stage III NSCLC, first-line gastric cancer, first-line esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and relapsed/refractory extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma.- Flcube.com
