The "A+H" trend is highly likely to continue into 2026, but significant differentiation will become apparent.

Another pharmaceutical company is accelerating its push towards the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Recently, Dizal Pharmaceutical (688192.SH), which has been listed on the STAR Market for four years, announced it had submitted an application for a Hong Kong listing, becoming the 14th mainland-listed pharmaceutical company to announce plans for a Hong Kong listing since 2025. Over the past year or so, 13 pharmaceutical companies, including Hengrui Pharmaceuticals (600276.SH; 01276.HK), Mabwell Biotech (688062.SH), Changchun High & New Technology Industry (000661.SZ), and Beta Pharma (300558.SZ), have successively initiated "A+H" listing plans, forming a new wave of "A+H" fervor.

Policy impetus is a major factor. Since April 2024, when the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued a document explicitly supporting leading companies to list in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) subsequently announced that A-share companies applying for a Hong Kong listing could receive fast-track approval and launched the "Technology Enterprise Channel" serving specialized technology companies and biotech companies, further facilitating cross-border listings for mainland enterprises.

On January 27, Zhang Yi, CEO and Chief Analyst of iiMedia Research, stated in an interview that besides policy support, the driving factors behind the A+H boom for pharmaceutical companies also include a strong corporate desire for diversified capital channels. "Over the past year, the overseas expansion of innovative drugs has been a major focus. Pharmaceutical companies need to access global capital to hedge against A-share market volatility and rely on foreign currency financing to meet huge R&D investments and overseas commercialization expenses. A Hong Kong listing can also significantly enhance a company's brand image in the international market, accelerate its global layout, and be more conducive to conducting international collaborations such as License-out deals."

Dizal Pharmaceutical also stated that its application for a Hong Kong listing is primarily to deepen the company's global strategic layout, enhance its international brand image, and further improve its core competitiveness. Upon a successful Hong Kong listing, the company will fully utilize the advantages of a dual listing to better attract international investors and facilitate cooperation and exchange with multinational pharmaceutical companies, thereby better advancing the implementation of its internationalization strategy.

Furthermore, Zhang Yi pointed out that the valuation synergy brought by the A+H structure, along with the capital support from southbound funds and ETFs, also has a positive effect on corporate valuations. Additionally, and very importantly, the HKEX has relatively lenient public float requirements and a simplified process, meaning the compliance costs for a listing are not excessively high.

Beyond pharmaceutical companies, since the beginning of 2026, over ten other A-share listed companies have announced plans to launch Hong Kong listings, involving sectors such as new energy, non-ferrous metals, and electrical appliances. Zhang Yi indicated to the source that the A+H trend is highly likely to continue into 2026, but the differentiation will be very pronounced. "The potential for fundraising through Hong Kong IPOs remains quite ample, but both policy and liquidity will tend to favor supporting leading companies' layouts, while mid- and lower-tier companies will face greater pressure."

Annual Revenue of 8 Billion Yuan Still Results in Losses.

Innovative drug R&D is governed by the famous "double ten" rule, meaning a new drug takes an average of over ten years and costs billions of dollars from R&D to market launch. Even after successfully listing on the A-share market, the financing capacity of a single market remains limited. For many drugmakers developing innovative drugs, despite having some capital reserves, they still need to open up new financing channels in the face of sustained high-intensity R&D investment.

Taking Dizal Pharmaceutical as an example, with the commercialization of its two products, sunvozertinib (brand name: Sunvozet) and golidocitinib (brand name: Gorezet), in China, the company's revenue experienced explosive growth, increasing from less than 100 million yuan in 2023 to 8 billion yuan in 2025. However, this was still insufficient to cover its high R&D expenses and sales expenditures.

According to its earnings forecast, Dizal Pharmaceutical expects a net loss attributable to shareholders of 770 million yuan for 2025, a reduction of approximately 75.96 million yuan compared to the previous year. Furthermore, based on Q3 2025 report data, the company's R&D expenses and sales expenses for the first three quarters of 2025 were 644 million yuan and 424 million yuan, respectively.

On the other hand, Dizal Pharmaceutical is still fully advancing the clinical development of its two core products. Among them, sunvozertinib is undergoing multiple registrational Phase III clinical trials to expand its application as a first-line and adjuvant therapy; meanwhile, the already approved golidocitinib is also being developed for new indications, combination therapies, and new formulations. Additionally, Dizal's product portfolio includes one candidate drug in the registrational clinical stage, three assets in the post-proof-of-concept stage, and one asset in the early clinical stage.

Sustained R&D investment is seen as the cornerstone for innovative pharmaceutical companies to maintain global competitiveness. For Dizal Pharmaceutical, rushing for a Hong Kong listing and opening up new financing channels is equally necessary. As of the end of Q3 2025, the company's cash and cash equivalents stood at 1.014 billion yuan.

It was learned from Dizal Pharmaceutical that in 2025, it had already achieved commercialization profitability, meaning revenue could cover costs such as sales and management, excluding R&D expenses. Dizal stated that the company is positioned for global innovation and will balance continuous R&D investment with sales development planning, striving to achieve profitability as soon as possible while actively expanding new products and indications.

Dizal stated that, driven by medical insurance coverage, the market penetration of its core products, sunvozertinib and golidocitinib, has just begun, with huge growth potential. Furthermore, the company is implementing a "quality and efficiency improvement, focusing on returns" initiative. Over the past year, the company's sales expense ratio has declined quarter by quarter, showing significant optimization. The sales expense ratio for the first three quarters of 2025 had already dropped to 72%, a marked decrease from 124% for the full year 2024.

Hong Kong Listing Thresholds Possibly Tightening?

The "A+H" track appears hot but is not without its obstacles.

In November 2025, Bili Tianheng (688506.SH), which was on the verge of a Hong Kong listing, suddenly announced that, in light of current market conditions, it decided to delay the global offering and listing process of its H-shares. Prior to this, Bili Tianheng had submitted applications to the HKEX three times. According to a report by Tencent News' "Qianwang," the suspension was due to its offer price being set too high, resulting in insufficient institutional orders and some institutional investors withdrawing their orders at the last minute.

Additionally, recent rumors suggest that the thresholds for listing in Hong Kong are being tightened, and some brokerages have reportedly received guidance requiring dual-listing candidates to meet a market capitalization threshold of 30 billion yuan. However, this news has not been officially confirmed.

Regarding this, Zhang Yi stated that although the rumors have not been confirmed, there is rationality behind tightening the Hong Kong listing thresholds.

"In recent years, a large number of companies have listed in Hong Kong, many of which were listing just for the sake of listing," he pointed out. Some of these companies were merely fulfilling capital VAM agreements, and truly high-quality candidates were not common. Tightening thresholds also implies that regulators will focus more on companies' fundamentals, compliance, growth potential, and technological attributes to curb low-quality applications and optimize the market ecosystem.

It was noted that at the end of 2025, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the HKEX jointly issued a rare letter to IPO sponsors expressing concern about the declining quality of new listing applications. Furthermore, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Professional Association's "2026-27 Budget Proposal Opinion Paper" also mentioned that "the high concentration of the sponsor market exacerbates the risk of declining application quality under the current circumstances... instances of shoddy preparation of listing documents have occurred."

"For the HKEX, since there are so many choices, why not raise the screening standards?" Zhang Yi said. Raising the market capitalization threshold to 30 billion yuan makes sense because a higher market cap typically signifies more robust corporate governance and cash flow, making companies better suited to handle the regulatory complexity of dual listings. It also serves as a form of protection against market risks and for the exchange's reputation. However, in his view, the 30 billion yuan threshold remains a market rumor, and regulators may not necessarily codify it as an explicit rule.

"Setting such a fixed numerical threshold itself carries many risks, and future adjustments would be difficult, lacking flexibility. Therefore, it is more likely to exist as a practical consideration in operations, a kind of 'unwritten rule'," Zhang Yi stated.

A senior investment banking executive at a leading brokerage also noted in a media interview that a 30 billion yuan market capitalization standard sets an excessively high bar for companies seeking a Hong Kong listing, far exceeding the scale of most potential listing candidates in the current Hong Kong market. While there might be traceable underlying considerations behind setting such a threshold, the likelihood of its implementation currently is low.

Among the 14 mainland-listed pharmaceutical companies that have announced plans to list in Hong Kong, aside from Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, which has already completed its Hong Kong listing, and Bili Tianheng, which delayed its listing, only Changchun High & New Technology Industry, Sinocelltech (300765.SZ), and Salubris (002294.SZ) have market capitalizations meeting this threshold. As of the time of writing, their market capitalizations were 39.802 billion yuan, 64.653 billion yuan, and 52.831 billion yuan, respectively.

The Hong Kong IPO market was火爆 in 2025. Wind data shows that a total of 117 companies listed in Hong Kong throughout 2025, an increase of 67.14% compared to 2024. Furthermore, the total funds raised through Hong Kong IPOs in 2025 reached HK$285.693 billion, a 224% increase from 2024, ranking first globally in terms of fundraising size.

HKEX's披露易 (Disclosure Easy) platform showed that by the end of 2025, the number of companies queuing for listing had reached 316. According to media statistics, by late November 2025, there were over 80 biopharmaceutical companies in the Hong Kong IPO queue, with 23 healthcare companies having successfully listed in Hong Kong.

Regarding whether the current capital capacity of the Hong Kong market can continuously support such intensive supply, Zhang Yi stated that in the short term, the dense supply will indeed keep sustained pressure on the market and liquidity. Although the liquidity foundation for the Hong Kong biotech sector is solid, the concentration of so many companies listing inevitably leads to capital fragmentation.

Against this backdrop, resources may accelerate their concentration towards the leading players. "The concentration of resources towards the leaders is a common market rule. Capital and research coverage will increasingly focus on leading companies, while smaller, lower-tier pharmaceutical companies, due to lower visibility, will face greater pressure in terms of valuation and liquidity," Zhang Yi said.