A single BD transaction has led to a dramatic surge in Bailitian Heng's performance. However, beneath the spotlight, concerns remain. Innovative drug R&D requires substantial investment with long cycles and high risks, while production system construction still demands significant capital, and other R&D pipelines urgently need funding.

Last week, Bailitian Heng's stock price hit a historic high, reaching 388 yuan at one point, with market capitalization breaking through 150 billion yuan. Looking back over the past two and a half years, its stock price has risen more than 10 times compared to the IPO price of 24.70 yuan.

The company is helmed by Sichuan entrepreneur Zhu Yi. From Sichuan University to Fudan University, after several entrepreneurial ventures, he founded Bailitian Heng with his accumulated savings, leading the company's transformation into innovative drug R&D, ultimately gaining recognition through a phenomenal License-out deal.

According to the "2025 New Fortune 500 Wealth Creation List," Zhu Yi has become Sichuan's new richest person based on his current shareholding value.

This year, China's pharmaceutical sector has regained vitality. Long considered a sector with sustainable advantages, domestic biopharmaceuticals are beginning to experience valuation recovery.

**Sichuan University Alumni Leadership, 150 Billion Market Value**

Bailitian Heng's story begins with a Sichuan native. Born in Nanchong, Sichuan in 1963, Zhu Yi graduated from Sichuan University's radio engineering program in 1984, later pursuing biological studies at Fudan University. This experience at Fudan laid the foundation for his future venture into biopharmaceutical entrepreneurship.

After graduation, Zhu Yi was assigned to the former West China University of Medical Sciences' Basic Medical College, engaging in research and teaching. However, in that era, project funding was scarce and advanced equipment insufficient, making quality scientific research virtually impossible.

Consequently, Zhu Yi resigned from his stable position—his thinking was simple: first make money in business, then return to scientific research. Over the following years, Zhu Yi engaged in foreign trade and real estate.

In 1996, he returned to Wenjiang, Chengdu with his earnings to establish Baili Pharmaceutical (predecessor to Bailitian Heng), primarily focusing on chemical generic drugs and traditional Chinese medicines.

In 1998, Baili Pharmaceutical launched its first generic drug—the antiviral ribavirin granules, which once dominated national sales in its category, becoming a star product. Subsequently, Baili Pharmaceutical grew rapidly, gradually becoming a regional leader in generic drugs in Southwest China.

In 2010, Zhu Yi made a crucial decision—leading the company's transformation toward innovative drug R&D. His judgment at the time was that generic drugs would become highly competitive, with razor-thin profits in future hand-to-hand combat. The profits earned from generic drugs over the past decade provided Bailitian Heng with a cash flow system for innovative drug R&D.

In 2014, Bailitian Heng established its innovative drug research center, SystImmune, in Seattle, beginning a decade-long research into the anti-tumor ADC molecule BL-B01D1.

Compared to numerous overseas returnee pharmaceutical entrepreneurs at the time, Zhu Yi and Bailitian Heng were not particularly prominent. Adhering to a 0-1 innovative R&D route also often failed to provide the subsequent development plans and progress that capital hoped to see. Therefore, Bailitian Heng received limited attention in the primary market.

In 2017, Zhu Yi began seeking external funding to prepare resources for innovative drugs entering clinical trials. Eventually, two institutions extended offers—Orbimed and Decheng Capital, which were also the rare primary market investors in Bailitian Heng before listing.

In 2023, Bailitian Heng officially listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. Based on the IPO price, Bailitian Heng's market value at listing was approximately 9.9 billion yuan, making it a relatively niche company among innovative pharmaceutical enterprises on the board.

However, in Zhu Yi's view, Bailitian Heng was already a company with clinical development capabilities in China, globally leading ADC and GNC R&D platforms, an excellent pipeline, and global First-in-class drugs, with severely undervalued market capitalization.

Unexpectedly, the story took a different turn. In just two and a half years since listing, Bailitian Heng's stock price soared.

In April 2025, Bailitian Heng's market value officially broke through 100 billion yuan, joining the A-share pharmaceutical companies' 100-billion market cap club. As of the afternoon of September 7th, Bailitian Heng's latest market value exceeded 150 billion yuan.

**Behind the Surge: Ascending to Sichuan's Richest**

Roughly calculated, Bailitian Heng's stock price rose from the IPO price of 24.70 yuan to over 380 yuan, with cumulative gains reaching 1,430%.

This stems from a landmark BD transaction. Rewinding to June 2023, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, the clinical data of iza-bren (BL-B01D1) caused a sensation, with eight of the top ten global MNCs extending offers.

Over the following six months, SystImmune "talked with all top 20 global pharmaceutical companies at least once." Ultimately, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) accepted the future revenue-sharing transaction structure and offered a price of $8.4 billion (approximately 60 billion yuan).

Thus, BL-B01D1 became China's first authorized dual-antibody ADC, setting a new record for the largest BD transaction in the global ADC field.

News quickly spread globally, and Bailitian Heng, this previously unknown Science and Technology Innovation Board pharmaceutical company, instantly stepped into the spotlight.

Capital enthusiasm followed—on December 12th, Bailitian Heng's stock price opened with a 20% limit-up, hitting a historic high with market value breaking through 50 billion yuan.

What makes BL-B01D1 so sought after by major pharmaceutical companies? With advantages including precise targeting, efficient cancer cell killing, reduced side effects, and overcoming drug resistance, ADC drugs have enormous potential in the anti-cancer field. Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca's DS-8201 is even called the "anti-cancer miracle drug," heralding the era of three-dimensional tumor immunotherapy.

As the world's first-in-class, new concept, and only EGFR×HER3 dual-antibody ADC to enter Phase III clinical trials, BL-B01D1 resembles a "dual-warhead missile," simultaneously targeting two weaknesses of cancer cells for more precise tumor killing with lower side effects.

Following the BD transaction, Bailitian Heng's performance surged—last March, the $800 million upfront payment arrived in one lump sum. The company achieved operating revenue of 5.823 billion yuan that year, a year-over-year increase of 936.31%, successfully turning profitable with annual net profit attributable to shareholders reaching 3.708 billion yuan, up 575.02% year-over-year.

However, beneath the glory lie concerns. Innovative drug R&D is known for high investment, long cycles, and high risks, with the dual-antibody ADC field being a veritable "money pit." Although BL-B01D1 successfully went global, subsequent global multi-center clinical trials and production system construction still require substantial capital investment, while other R&D pipelines urgently need funding.

Actually, with no new drugs approved for market yet, the company returned to losses in 2025—according to financial reports, Bailitian Heng achieved revenue of 171 million yuan in the first half of this year, down 96.92% year-over-year, with net profit attributable to shareholders at -1.118 billion yuan, down 123.96% year-over-year.

"Bailitian Heng aims to become a multinational pharmaceutical company (MNC) within five years," Zhu Yi once articulated the company's goal. He stated frankly that when SystImmune, Inc. was established in Seattle in 2014, it was "for Global," aimed at global commercialization of products.

Starting from the wild west era of domestic innovative drugs, Bailitian Heng has weathered two Biotech winters. Currently, Zhu Yi remains Bailitian Heng's largest shareholder with a 74.35% stake. According to the "2025 New Fortune 500 Wealth Creation List," based on his latest shareholding ratio, he has become Sichuan's new richest person.

**Pharmaceutical Sector Transitioning from "Valuation Recovery" to "Value Reconstruction"**

China's pharmaceutical sector is experiencing long-awaited excitement. The excitement began in Hong Kong stocks. As investors predicted at the beginning of the year, biopharmaceuticals are experiencing a major bull run.

The market responded positively—this year, over ten heavyweight companies including Hengrui Medicine and Imugene successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with "IPO subscription profits soaring" and significantly lower failure rates. Many investors profited, with Imugene, for example, closing up 116.7% on its first day—subscribing to one lot could yield approximately 10,000 Hong Kong dollars in profit.

The Hang Seng Hong Kong Stock Connect Innovative Drug Index has surged over 100% year-to-date, becoming a truly bullish sector globally this year.

The fervent sentiment has spread, with multiple A-share pharmaceutical leaders also experiencing doubled stock prices. Just last week, BeiGene's A-share stock price surged intraday, with total market value briefly breaking through the 500 billion yuan mark, ranking among A-share's highest-valued pharmaceutical stocks.

A telling sign is that over the past year, A-shares and Hong Kong stocks have produced over 20 ten-bagger stocks, with the biopharmaceutical industry producing the most—Ascletis Pharma, Deka Biosciences, CAR-T (Shanghai), HBM Holdings... with gains of over ten times frequently appearing in investors' social media feeds.

Qiming Venture Partners Managing Partner Hu Xubo analyzed that an important driving factor for China's innovative drug industry transitioning from "cold" to "hot" over the past year is that Chinese innovative drug companies' products have been truly recognized by the industry, especially global pharmaceutical companies.

In other words, for a long time, Chinese biopharmaceuticals, especially innovative drugs, were severely undervalued. Today, Chinese pharmaceutical companies are speaking through their products and beginning to gain recognition.

For example, behind Bailitian Heng's stock price surge, BD transactions and revenue are highlights. This development path can be seen in almost every surging pharmaceutical stock: Jingtai Technology completing pipeline cooperation agreements with DoveTree totaling nearly $6 billion, HBM Holdings adding four BD transactions in the first half of the year, achieving consecutive profits through the BD model and being called the "BD King" by the market...

A noteworthy detail is that upfront payments represent an increasingly higher proportion of total transaction amounts. Previously, with MNCs (multinational corporations) holding core negotiating power, upfront payments were generally low. This meant that once project progress stalled, most domestic innovative drugs could only receive upfront payments, which were often the smallest portion of income.

We can see that as multiple leading biotech companies achieve breakeven for the first time, the pharmaceutical sector is transitioning from simple "valuation recovery" to a new stage of "value reconstruction."

For a long time, biopharmaceuticals have been considered an industry with sustainable advantages requiring patience to see results. Domestic biopharmaceuticals have therefore endured a long period of quiet development.