Viva Biotech Announces 2024 Annual Results: Significantly Rebounding in Performance with New Stage ahead, AI Leads to a New Era of Novel Drug R&D

PR Newswire

SHANGHAI, March 27, 2025

Highlights of Annual Results for the Year Ended December 31, 2024

Revenue reached RMB1,986.7 million

Gross profit amounted to RMB687.4 million

Net profit recorded RMB222.0 million, a significant turnaround from a year ago

Adjusted Non-IFRS net profit recorded RMB314.6 million, a YOY increase of nearly 50.6%.

SHANGHAI, March 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On March 27, 2025, Viva Biotech Holdings ("Viva Biotech", "the Group" or "the Company", stock code: 1873.HK) announced that for the Group's revenue during the Reporting Period achieved RMB1,986.7 million, gross profit amounted to RMB687.4 million and net profit recorded RMB222.0 million, a significant turnaround from a net loss of RMB99.8 million in the corresponding period of last year, mainly benefiting from the elimination of relevant financial adjustments due to the full repayment of convertible bonds, and an increase in adjusted non-IFRS net profit to RMB314.6 million from RMB208.8 million in the corresponding period of last year, representing an increase of nearly 50.6% as compared to last year, which was mainly attributable to an increase in operating profit margin driven by the recovery of CRO business growth and the improving operational efficiency in 2H2024, as well as the recognition of investment income from milestone payments received by the Group during the year.

In addition, the Group's subsidiary Viva Biotech Shanghai was successfully restructured into a joint stock limited company on September 27, 2024, as the Group currently holds approximately 72.9% of its total issued share capital. During the Reporting Period, the Group's management and its strategic investors commenced a number of collaborations with full mutual trust, fully utilizing the strategic investors' strengths in global vision, capital markets and strategic resources to empower the Group's continuous enhancement in corporate governance, business operations, investment and financing as well as strategic planning.

CRO Revenue Growth Improved Significantly Improving in the Second Half of the Year to Sustain a Recovery Momentum Ahead

In 2024, the revenue of the Company's CRO business decreased by approximately 4.0% to RMB810.9 million from RMB844.9 million in the same period of last year, while the corresponding adjusted gross profit decreased by approximately 1.9% to RMB357.1 million from RMB363.8 million in the same period of last year. The decrease in CRO revenue in 2024 as compared to previous years was mainly attributable to the short-term impact of the global biopharmaceutical investment and financing pressure in 2023 on the R&D investment in innovative drugs in 1H2024. However, with the gradual recovery of global biopharmaceutical investment and financing since 2024, the Company's CRO revenue in 2H2024 has realized positive year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter growth compared with the same period last year and the first half of 2024. In addition, the CRO order value has realized positive growth year-on-year, and the monthly new order value is still maintained at a high level, which will drive the Company's CRO revenue to further maintain the rebound trend in 2025. Meanwhile, the Company has also taken a series of effective measures to enhance operational efficiency to maintain the profitability of CRO at a higher level.

As of December 31, 2024, the Company's cumulative number of CRO customers increased to 1,568, including the world's top 10 pharmaceutical companies (based on the total revenue of the 2024 annual report), with the revenue share of the top 10 customers accounting for 24.4%. The CRO business has a diversified geographical distribution of customers, with the revenue share from overseas regions accounting for approximately 87.3%. Revenue from customers in Mainland China accounted for approximately 12.7%.

As of the end of 2024, the Company has cumulatively delivered more than 82,716 protein structures to the clients, approximately 17,681 of which were newly delivered in 2024. The R&D of the Company has accumulated over 2,098 independent drug targets, 112 of which were newly delivered in 2024. Currently, the Company maintains a leading global position in the industry in the field of protein structure analysis. During the Reporting Period, the utilization of synchrotron radiation source reached 1,867 hours. The Company established long-term cooperation with 13 synchrotron radiation source centers around the world, the Company will ensure uninterrupted data collection throughout the year.

In terms of marketing and business development, on one hand, the Company will obtain integrated service orders by fostering synergistic development of biological and chemical segments, on the other hand, the Company will actively continue to enhance the integration of digital marketing and offline business development (BD), while expanding its global BD team. During the Reporting Period, the Group not only strengthened its presence in the European market, but also established a branch in Boston, the United States. This marked a new milestone in the Company's global footprints, allowing us to further expand and deepen the international cooperation network. Moreover, the Company attaches great importance to the important role of artificial intelligence (AI) in drug R&D. Based on the efforts in improving efficiency and success rate, the Company combines dry and wet experiments to expand quantity and scale of new projects continuously. It is worth mentioning that by the end of 2024, the Company had participated in 157 AIDD projects, and the cumulative number of customers purchasing CADD/AIDD reached 51. Revenue from AI-enabled projects exceeded US$10 million, and cooperation with renowned institutions regarding a complete set of AI discovery solutions has been reached in some niche fields.

New Commercial CDMO Projects to be Launched Soon and the CMC Business Optimization and Adjustment Largely Completed

The Group is committed to building a one-stop service platform from R&D to production of global innovative drugs. Through the 100% equity interests acquisition of Zhejiang Langhua Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (Langhua Pharmaceutical), the Group has been able to complete the deployment of the production side of the business. During the Reporting Period, the Group continued to expand CDMO capacity to prepare for commercial production of new molecules in the future. In addition, the Company completed optimization and adjustment of the CMC business.

In 2024, Langhua Pharmaceutical recorded revenue of RMB1,175.7 million and the adjusted gross profit of RMB344.5 million. As of December 31, 2024, Langhua Pharmaceutical had served 897 clients, with 66.8% of revenue accounted for by the top ten customers and 100% retention rate of the top ten customers. Currently, Langhua Pharmaceutical's CDMO business, in addition to the existing commercialized projects that can maintain natural growth, has two important new commercialized projects that are at the process performance qualification (PPQ) stage and are expected to be commercially launched in 2025 and 2026, respectively, which will serve as a new growth driver for the CDMO business in the future. With respect to production capacity, the current total available total capacity has reached 860 cubic meters. In addition, Langhua Pharmaceutical plans to establish a new production capacity of 400 cubic meters between 2024 and 2025 to cater the commercial production of new molecules, and the civil construction work has already been completed. This endeavor will provide sufficient assurance for the Company's revenue growth with the launch of new products and release of reserved capacity in the future. Langhua Pharmaceutical will continue to adhere to the principles of customer first and regulatory compliance in quality management, strengthen cooperation with quality customers, and continuously improve and enhance the guidance and operability of the quality system. During the Reporting Period, Langham Pharmaceutical passed the on-site inspections of WHO and FDA again, which fully demonstrates that the quality system of Langham Pharmaceutical is further well aligned with the international system standards, and can guarantee the provision of quality, safe and reliable CDMO services to the world's leading pharmaceutical enterprises.

In 2024, the Group adjusted its CMC business structure by focusing more on synthesis and analytics operations, strengthened BD efforts to overseas customers, and promoted continuous improvement in profitability through cost reduction, efficiency enhancement and customer mix optimization. Since its establishment, CMC has completed and is currently progressing with a total of 255 new drug projects, driven by a CMC R&D team of 105 members, and generated revenue of nearly RMB43.0 million. In addition, the projects channeled by the Group progressed smoothly, and one pipeline has rapidly advanced to Phase III clinical trials, showcasing the success of the Group's integrated strategy. In the future, the Group will further strengthen the BD and channeling efforts for acquiring high-quality CMC projects with a view to promoting revenue growth and profitability improvement of the CMC business on the basis of fully utilizing internal project resources, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

Partial Exits of Incubation Portfolio Companies Continued to Realize Investment Returns, Accretive to the Group's Profits

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