Kelun Pharmaceutical's fourth-quarter performance rebounds, with the stock price rising over 21% in the past month! Four innovative drugs from its subsidiaries sold over 500 million last year.

On the evening of April 2, Kèlún Pharmaceutical (002422.SZ) released its 2025 performance report. In the period, its revenue was RMB 18.51B, down 15.13% year over year; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was RMB 1.7B.

In 2024, Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s year-over-year revenue growth rate slowed from more than 12% in the prior year to 1.67%; the year-over-year net profit growth rate attributable to shareholders of listed companies slowed from 44.03% in the prior year to 19.53%.

Although Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s innovative-drug subsidiary, Kèlún Botaí, saw a decline in net profit in 2025, over the past year, the company obtained approvals for multiple innovative drugs in China, such as boduquzumab monotherapy and others, and also reached multiple overseas authorization transaction deals. Over the past year, Kèlún Botaí’s share price has risen by more than 60%.

Image source: Tuchong Creative

Fourth-quarter performance rebounds

Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s performance in the fourth quarter of 2025 showed some improvement.

According to the financial report, in the fourth quarter of 2025, Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s revenue was RMB 5.24B, and net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was RMB 501M; whereas in the fourth quarter of 2024, these two figures were RMB 5.02B and RMB 465M, respectively.

Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s decline in performance in 2025 may have been mainly driven by weaker demand in terminal markets, the impact of centralized procurement, and declines in profits at two subsidiaries.

Based on the performance report, Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s revenue mainly came from infusion business, non-infusion business, and R&D projects. Among these, the infusion business, accounting for four-tenths of total revenue, is its second-largest source of income. In 2025, infusion business revenue was RMB 7.48B, with volume of 3.99B bottles/bags.

In its announcement, Kèlún Pharmaceutical explained that the decline in infusion business was mainly due to the decrease in the incidence of infectious diseases such as influenza, as well as the effects of医保 cost controls, which led to an overall decline in market demand.

Although the overall volume of Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s infusion business declined, some products such as multi-chamber bags achieved relatively fast growth last year. For example, the volume of “Enteral Nutrition Three-Chamber Bag,” a high-end infusion product for matching, increased 30.90% year over year.

Another major segment is non-infusion preparations, including innovative-drug products from Kèlún Botaí, as well as raw materials and preparations in areas such as anti-infection, anesthesia and pain relief, and central nervous system. In 2025, revenue from non-infusion drugs was RMB 4.04B, down 3.20% year over year.

Within non-infusion preparations, the volumes or sales revenues of multiple products declined. For example, Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s plastic water-injection business sold 745 million units in the full year, down 12.89% year over year; in the anti-infection segment, products such as cefadroxil powder for injection, penicillin powder for injection, and lyophilized powder for injection saw different degrees of volume decline due to a pullback in demand and the impact that some products were not selected in the company’s centralized volume-based procurement.

In the endocrinology and metabolism field, currently, Kèlún Pharmaceutical has 6 products approved for上市, including empagliflozin tablets (科糖恩®). Among them, last year, 科糖恩® saw volume growth of 2.82% due to increased domestic competitors and the impact of procurement continuation, but sales revenue fell 39.29%.

One positive development is growth in the sales of Kèlún Botaí’s innovative drugs. Kèlún Botaí’s sac-TMT (佳泰莱®), tögorliumab (科泰莱®), cetuximab N01 (达泰莱®), boduquzumab (舒泰莱®), and others were approved one after another, and the company’s innovative-drug products began to achieve commercialization. The financial report shows that the sales revenue of the above four products in 2025 was RMB 543 million.

Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s antibiotic intermediates and API (active pharmaceutical ingredients) generated revenue of RMB 4.5B in 2025. Over the past year, year-over-year declines in both sales volume and pricing of penicillin products brought negative impacts to revenue and gross margin in this segment. This segment is handled by Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s subsidiary, Chuan Ning Bio (301301.SZ). In 2025, both Chuan Ning Bio’s revenue and net profit decreased year over year.

Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s total market value exceeds RMB 56 billion

Kèlún Pharmaceutical was founded by Liu Gexin in 1996. At that time, the company began with infusion products. This long-established pharmaceutical company from Sichuan was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2010, and in the same year established Chuan Ning Bio. After that, Kèlún Pharmaceutical began establishing, acquiring, and absorbing pharmaceutical companies across various regions in China, including Guangdong, Guangxi, Xinjiang, and Guizhou.

In 2012, Kèlún Pharmaceutical launched an innovation-driven transformation; in 2020, its controlling subsidiary, Chuan Ning Bio, completed a shareholding system restructuring, again introduced strategic investors, and initiated the spin-off of Chuan Ning Bio for a listing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s ChiNext board. In 2022, Chuan Ning Bio was listed on the ChiNext board. That same year, Kèlún Botaí under Kèlún Pharmaceutical reached three authorization cooperation deals with Merck Sharp & Dohme, with a total contract value exceeding US$10 billion. In 2023, Kèlún Botaí was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

As a result, Kèlún Pharmaceutical has two listed companies. As of April 3, Chuan Ning Bio’s total market value was RMB 23.48B; Kèlún Botaí’s total market value was HKD 117.41B; and Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s total market value was RMB 56.92B.

Judging from share-price performance, since 2022, Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s stock price has shown a clear upward trend, rising from the low point of around RMB 12 per share in April 2022 to a peak of RMB 41.58 per share in September 2025. On April 3, Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s closing price was RMB 35.62 per share. In the past month, the stock price has risen by more than 21%.

By the end of 2025, Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s actual controller, Liu Gexin, held 23.72% of the company’s shares. With three listed companies under his seat, Liu Gexin’s wealth has also increased accordingly. According to the Hurun Rich List, in 2010 when Kèlún Pharmaceutical was listed, Liu Gexin’s personal wealth was RMB 6.8 billion; by 2025, his personal wealth had risen to RMB 18 billion.

Today, at age 75, Liu Gexin is still serving as chairman of Kèlún Pharmaceutical, and his son, Liu Sichuan, is gradually moving deeper into the company’s core business.

The reporter from the Economic Daily of the Times looked up Kèlún Pharmaceutical’s 2015 annual report and found that in 2007, when Liu Sichuan was only 23 years old, he began serving as assistant to the chairman of Kèlún Pharmaceutical; in 2009, he became a director of the company; in 2012, he was appointed vice president; and in 2015, Liu Sichuan took the post of general manager of the company.

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