At 65, scientist Wang Qinghua left his tenured position at the University of Toronto to return to a Chinese laboratory. This was in 2014, when global diabetes patients had exceeded 400 million, with China accounting for nearly one-third.

Armed with over a decade of research achievements in GLP-1 molecular engineering, Wang founded Innogen Pharma in Guangzhou, focusing on metabolic disease drug development. From scientist to entrepreneur, Wang spent ten years leading Innogen Pharma through the most challenging "valley of death" in biopharmaceuticals, achieving fame with its core product Isupaglutide alpha (Yinoqing).

This product is Asia's first original human-sourced long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist to advance to the registration approval stage. It received approval for treating type 2 diabetes in January 2025 and entered the market the following month. Sales in the first five months generated 38.14 million yuan in revenue, breaking the company's ten-year zero-revenue record.

Since its weight-loss indication is still in Phase IIb/III clinical trials, Innogen is also called a "Chinese semaglutide" concept stock.

Shortly after the product launched, Innogen knocked on the doors of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and listed today. The stock opened at HK$72, up 285.44% from the issue price of HK$18.68, with market capitalization once reaching nearly HK$32.9 billion.

Before the IPO, institutions including Hongtai Investment, Temasek, CICC Capital, Guangzhou Industrial Investment, China Renaissance Capital, Cowin Venture, Himalaya Capital, CAS Star, KIP Capital, PDCI, Deyi Capital, Origin Star Capital, Baring Private Equity, Everbright Holdings, Boyuan Capital, Youshan Capital, Xiaochi Capital, and Yuanhui Capital entered through four funding rounds, valuing the company at 4.65 billion yuan.

**A Tenured Professor's Ten-Year Journey**

Wang Qinghua's credentials serve as a "golden passport" in the metabolic disease field: a biochemistry PhD from the University of Antwerp in Belgium, tenured professor at the University of Toronto, and standing committee member of the world's top diabetes research institution, the Banting and Best Diabetes Centre. After returning to China, he served as distinguished professor and doctoral supervisor at Fudan University.

He made outstanding contributions to early discoveries in GLP-1 molecular mechanisms, first using "recombinant fusion protein half-life extension" technology in 2007, laying the foundation for today's Isupaglutide alpha.

However, the reality that laboratory achievements couldn't be transformed into accessible medicines for patients left him deeply regretful. He lamented: "A century after insulin's discovery, diabetes still needs a fundamental cure."

After 25 years of diabetes mechanism research, he resolutely changed roles in 2014, transforming from scholar to entrepreneur. At that time, China's metabolic disease innovative drug field was still a desert, with patients relying on expensive imported drugs.

While serving as deputy director of the Endocrinology and Diabetes Research Institute at Huashan Hospital, he witnessed countless patients abandon treatment due to drug costs, which became the direct motivation for founding Innogen Pharma.

The company immediately focused on the golden target of GLP-1 receptor agonists but chose a differentiated technical path: developing human-sourced, long-acting fusion proteins. While international giants focused on weekly formulations, Wang's team leveraged early breakthroughs in fusion protein construction to extend the dosing cycle to once every two weeks.

This strategy was called "trading time for space," using lower dosing frequency to enter market gaps not fully covered by giants.

Ten years of dedication, all for this moment. The new drug application (BLA) for Isupaglutide alpha as monotherapy and combination therapy with metformin for type 2 diabetes was accepted by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) in September 2023 and successfully approved in January 2025, with the brand name Yinoqing.

This made Innogen the first company in Asia and third globally to advance an original human-sourced long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist to the registration approval stage. Innogen thus joined the first tier of global metabolic disease innovative drug companies.

This drug brings great convenience to diabetes patients. Isupaglutide alpha has a longer half-life than similar long-acting GLP-1 drugs, with an average half-life of 204 hours, enabling once-weekly dosing with potential for once-every-two-weeks injection.

More profoundly, it breaks imported drug monopolies. Previously, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly occupied 93.6% of China's GLP-1 market share.

Besides approval for type 2 diabetes treatment, Phase IIa clinical trials for obesity and overweight indications are progressing steadily, with major endpoint results expected by end of 2026. Research for treating metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) has received Investigational New Drug (IND) approval from the US FDA, with multicenter clinical trials about to begin in the US and China.

Additionally, Innogen has five promising candidate drugs in preclinical stages entering IND preparation, with a rich and highly potential R&D pipeline.

**Commercial Dawn Arrives**

Behind the ten-year effort lies enormous capital consumption. When the company completed Phase III clinical trials in 2023, R&D expenses reached 492 million yuan, with cumulative investment exceeding 1 billion yuan over ten years. However, with the core product's launch, commercial dawn has arrived.

The prospectus shows Innogen's net loss was 733 million yuan in 2023, significantly narrowed to 175 million yuan in 2024, and 97.88 million yuan in the first five months of 2025.

The key turning point was the "cliff-like decline" in R&D expenses: from 492 million yuan in 2023 to 103 million yuan in 2024, mainly due to reduced clinical trial costs of 390 million yuan after the core product completed Phase III trials. This marks the enterprise's transition from cash-burning R&D to commercial cash generation.

On February 18 this year, Yinoqing launched on Alibaba Health's pharmacy platform, with 2 vials of 1mg and 2 vials of 3mg injection priced at 1,764 yuan, or 532 yuan per box (2 vials), 30%-50% lower than similar imported products.

After Yinoqing's launch, the company's financial structure underwent fundamental changes: the company achieved 38.14 million yuan in revenue in the first five months. Current channels include tertiary hospitals and e-commerce platforms.

Administrative expenses were compressed from 256 million yuan in 2023 to 84.46 million yuan in 2024, reflecting improved management efficiency. A more positive signal is that operating cash flow turned positive for the first time in 2025, with current cash reserves of 557 million yuan.

Innogen's commercial dawn holds extraordinary significance. Compared to many similar Hong Kong-listed companies that mostly rely on generic drugs to support cash flow, Innogen has original drugs, a vastly different value proposition. Innogen's commercial progress represents one of the first successful commercial models among biotechs.

**46.5 Billion Yuan Valuation After Four Funding Rounds**

Innogen's staged victory hasn't completely eased market concerns, as the GLP-1 track, while hot, faces brutal competition.

Globally, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly monopolize 90% of the weight-loss drug market, with semaglutide generating $29.2 billion in annual sales. In China's battlefield, among over 10 marketed GLP-1 drugs, domestic products hold only 6.4% market share. Moreover, dozens of weight-loss candidate drugs are crowding clinical stages, queuing for market entry.

Market analysis suggests Innogen's breakthrough points lie in two areas: First, Yinoqing's efficacy differentiation. The product showed weight-loss effects in diabetes clinical trials, with non-diabetic populations losing an average of 6.2% weight after 4 weeks of medication, enabling weight-loss drug development for additional revenue.

Second is achieving production capacity autonomy. The prospectus mentions factory construction plans to reduce dependence on CDMOs.

Innovative drug success requires both laboratory courage and capital market funding. Over ten years of development, Innogen completed four funding rounds, with valuation soaring from 666 million yuan in Pre-A round to 4.65 billion yuan in B+ round, raising a cumulative 1.558 billion yuan.

Actually, Innogen was initially a controlling subsidiary of well-known pharmaceutical company Yunnan Baiyao Group, which held 51% equity. Starting in 2015, it separated from Yunnan Baiyao's system for independent development. In October 2020, Yunnan Baiyao reduced its holdings, cashing out 166 million yuan and exiting the shareholder roster.

During this period, Innogen experienced two key turning points in capital markets. During A-round financing in 2021, when Isupaglutide alpha had just entered Phase IIb/III clinical trials, investors held cautious attitudes toward Innogen. In 2023, after the company's Phase III clinical data showed patients' HbA1c levels significantly decreased by 2.2% and high-dose groups lost an average of 7.0% body weight, the efficacy data ignited market confidence, further driving B-round financing valuation to jump to 3.93 billion yuan.

On the eve of IPO in July 2024, Shanghai Nuolin and Hongtai Investment exited, while Palace Investments (Temasek subsidiary), CICC Capital, Guangzhou Industrial Investment, China Renaissance Capital, Cowin Venture, Himalaya Capital, CAS Star, KIP Capital, PDCI, Deyi Capital, Origin Star Capital, Baring Private Equity, Everbright Holdings, Boyuan Capital, Youshan Capital, Xiaochi Capital, and Yuanhui Capital chose to continue holding.

This successful listing provides Innogen with more stable funding. Innogen stated that IPO proceeds will target three directions: First, indication expansion, with plans to launch synchronized China-US Phase II clinical trials for steatohepatitis and Phase IIb/III trials for obesity indications in 2026.

Second, global patent layout, planning to advance Phase II diabetes clinical trials in Australia and apply for steatohepatitis trials in the US. Third, oral formulation development to address competition from Hengrui Medicine and other competitors' oral GLP-1 products.