Most pharmaceutical stocks gained strength in Hong Kong trading. As of press time, IMMUNEONCO-B (01541) surged 18.98% to HK$13.48; QYUNS-B (02509) climbed 12.11% to HK$32.96; XTALPI (02228) advanced 8.55% to HK$13.2; JACOBIO-B (01167) rose 7.58% to HK$9.94; and REMEGEN (09995) gained 6.37% to HK$108.5.
On the news front, Trump announced on September 25 local time that he would impose 100% tariffs on patented and branded pharmaceuticals, with the sole exemption being for companies that are "building" manufacturing facilities in the United States. Bank of Communications International believes this will have limited impact on China's innovative drug industry chain and should not cause excessive concern.
Regarding innovative drugs, most current self-exported varieties have either established domestic production capacity in the US or outsourced production to local US CMOs, while the majority of domestic innovative drugs entering overseas markets adopt the BD (business development) model. For CXO companies, exported products are primarily APIs and bulk drug substances, which remain unaffected for now. The proportion of formulations and finished drug exports is relatively low, and it will take time for downstream multinational clients to invest in building facilities, resulting in limited direct short-term impact on CXO orders. In the long term, policy changes may also affect construction schedules.
Guotai Junan Securities noted that the innovative drug sector has experienced recent volatility, primarily due to the absence of authoritative academic conferences in July and August, which reduced opportunities for data releases and trading communications, leading to a decline in overall BD events. The firm's analysis of global BD events over the years shows that major BD transactions typically materialize toward year-end. With the ESMO conference and other authoritative academic meetings beginning in October, BD events are worth anticipating. The firm continues to be optimistic about the trend of improving global competitiveness of Chinese innovative drugs, operational improvements, and intensive BD collaboration agreements.