On August 21st, A-share pharmaceutical sector remained in positive territory throughout the trading session, outperforming the broader market. The pharmaceutical ETF (562050), the only fund tracking pharmaceutical indices in the market, surged as much as 1.45% in early trading, with its on-market price closing at 1.108 yuan, setting a new closing high since listing!
The pharmaceutical ETF (562050) covers 50 leading pharmaceutical companies, with heavy weightings in innovative drugs while also including traditional Chinese medicine. Today saw active trading among billion-yuan giants, with Hengrui Medicine rising 1.81%, BeiGene gaining 2.42%, and Baili Tianheng surging 4.21%. On the downside, Boomsense and Tongrentang declined over 4%.
Leading pharmaceutical company Hengrui Medicine delivered impressive interim results, providing strong support for sector performance. Its 2025 interim report showed operating revenue of 15.76 billion yuan in the first half, up 15.9% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders reached 4.45 billion yuan, up 29.7% year-on-year, with institutions commenting that its performance may be entering a period of explosive growth.
Similarly, BeiGene's performance again exceeded expectations! According to its previously released earnings preview, first-half operating revenue is expected to surge 46% year-on-year, achieving net profit attributable to shareholders of 450 million yuan, up 115.63% year-on-year.
Overall, among the 50 pharmaceutical leaders covered by the pharmaceutical ETF (562050), 18 companies have disclosed their first-half results (including earnings previews) as of now. 17 companies achieved profitability in the first half, with 12 companies posting positive growth in net profit attributable to shareholders. Among them, Tongrentang's net profit increased 193% year-on-year, while Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals also doubled its profits.
On the news front, on August 20th, top officials emphasized during research on biomedical industry development in Beijing the need to increase high-quality technological supply and policy support, focusing on promoting quality upgrades in the biomedical industry and developing more high-quality and effective new drugs.
Traditional Chinese medicine was also mentioned, with officials emphasizing the need to rely on innovation to promote the revitalization and development of TCM, making full use of modern scientific theories, technologies, and materials to deepen research and interpretation of TCM's basic theories, diagnostic and treatment patterns, and mechanisms of action, enriching treatment methods and advancing TCM modernization and industrialization.
To capture value revaluation opportunities in leading pharmaceutical companies, investors should focus on the only on-market pharmaceutical ETF (562050) and its feeder fund (024986). It focuses on A-share's top 50 pharmaceutical companies, with heavy weightings in innovative drugs (60%) while also covering high-barrier generic drugs and traditional Chinese medicine, completely excluding medical devices and CXOs.
To capture opportunities in the bull market catch-up for medical devices and CXOs, investors should focus on A-share's largest medical ETF (512170) and its feeder fund (012323). It focuses on "medical devices (52%) + medical services (40%)", highly correlated with AI healthcare, covering 6 leading CXO stocks.
Note: Industry weighting data sourced from CSI, as of July 31, 2025.
Risk Warning: The medical ETF and its feeder fund passively track the CSI Healthcare Index, with a base date of December 31, 2004, and published on October 31, 2014. The pharmaceutical ETF passively tracks the CSI Pharmaceutical Index, with a base date of December 30, 2011, and publication date of July 15, 2013. Annual historical returns for 2020-2024 were: 41.61%, -9.10%, -21.09%, -3.70%, -6.53% respectively. Index constituent stocks are adjusted according to index compilation rules, and historical backtesting performance does not predict future index performance. Individual stocks mentioned are for display purposes only and do not constitute investment advice of any form, nor represent position information or trading activities of any fund under management. The fund manager assesses the risk levels of medical ETF and pharmaceutical ETF as R3-Medium Risk, suitable for balanced (C3) and above investors, while the medical ETF feeder fund has a risk level of R4-Medium-High Risk, suitable for aggressive (C4) and above investors. Suitability matching opinions should be based on sales institutions. Any information appearing in this article (including but not limited to individual stocks, comments, predictions, charts, indicators, theories, any form of expression, etc.) is for reference only, and investors must be responsible for any autonomous investment decisions. Furthermore, any views, analyses, and predictions in this article do not constitute investment advice of any form to readers, nor do they bear any responsibility for direct or indirect losses caused by the use of this article's content. Fund investment involves risks, past performance does not represent future results, and performance of other funds managed by the fund manager does not guarantee fund performance. Fund investment should be conducted with caution.