The Sci-Tech Innovation Board Daily reported on September 18th (by Zheng Bingxun) that after experiencing a performance slump caused by the decline in demand for COVID-19 testing, IVD (In Vitro Diagnostics) company Sansure Biotech Inc. (688289.SH) began to see growth in performance in 2024.

At the earnings briefing on the 18th, Chairman and General Manager Dai Lizhong of Sansure Biotech Inc. disclosed, "The revenue of respiratory products in the first half of this year is basically the same as the total for the whole of last year."

The Sci-Tech Innovation Board Daily reporters found that in 2023, despite a sharp decline in demand for nucleic acid testing reagents and instruments due to COVID-19, Sansure Biotech's routine reagent business achieved sales revenue of 0.783 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 149.33%. In the respiratory product category alone, revenue exceeded 0.4 billion yuan, a 680% increase from the previous year.

In 2023, Sansure Biotech's total revenue was 1.007 billion yuan. If calculated at 0.4 billion yuan, the sales revenue of respiratory products accounted for approximately 40% of the total revenue.

In the first half of 2024, Sansure Biotech achieved revenue of 0.717 billion yuan, a 67.63% year-on-year increase, with a net income of 0.157 billion yuan, a 70.93% year-on-year increase. If calculated based on 0.4 billion yuan in sales, the revenue from respiratory products accounted for approximately 56% of the total revenue, an increase of about 16 percentage points from 2023.

It's worth noting that after experiencing a sharp drop in performance in 2023, Sansure Biotech once expressed its intention to promote a so-called 'second entrepreneurship' in the next 5-10 years, gradually transitioning from disease solutions to smart health management, from top-tier hospitals to grassroots medical institutions, and from B-end to C-end upgrades. They also strive to be among the top three globally in 1-3 niche areas.

At the earnings briefing, Deputy General Manager Peng Zhu of Sansure Biotech further revealed that under the impetus of the 'second entrepreneurship', Sansure has made deep advancements in the mainstream markets of the billion-dollar industries of respiratory, maternal and child health, and blood screening. New growth curves in sequencing, immunology, multiple POCTs, sepsis, drug sensitivity, and other areas are being nurtured, forming an above-average development trend.

However, for now, it seems that Sansure Biotech Inc. is still some distance away from being at the forefront globally.

During the epidemic, due to catching the testing trend, Sansure Biotech Inc.'s overseas revenue reached a peak of 2.425 billion yuan in 2020, accounting for 50.92% of the total revenue. However, as the epidemic improved, Sansure Biotech Inc.'s overseas revenue sharply declined to 0.433 billion yuan in 2022, accounting for 6.72% of the total revenue. In 2023, the overseas revenue further declined to 69.3544 million yuan, accounting for 6.89%.

Regarding overseas layout, Dai Lizhong said that Sansure Biotech Inc. has established overseas subsidiaries in Indonesia, France, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and the United States, and has set up offices in key countries such as Thailand and Saudi Arabia. Especially since this year, by jointly promoting localized production and services with local partners in Indonesia, Sansure Biotech Inc. has participated in the development process of the local healthcare system.

At the earnings conference, a reporter from the Star Daily further asked Chairman Dai Lizhong about the revenue and growth of the 'second growth curve' covering various disease areas other than COVID-19 products in the first half of 2024. The other party did not directly reply, but said that a series of solutions will be launched in various fields including respiratory, maternal and child health, and immunodiagnosis. Among them, in the field of immunodiagnosis, a subsidiary of Sansure Biotech Inc. has obtained registration certificates for progesterone (Prog) and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) test reagents, successfully entering the market for gynecological diseases.

In addition, in the past month from early August to mid-September of this year, Sansure Biotech Inc. has consecutively obtained market approvals for 4 intensive genetic series products, including folic acid, warfarin, nitroglycerin, and Alzheimer's disease, which provide reference for the assessment and medication guidance for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Regarding this matter, at the earnings conference, Dai Lizhong used the layout of genetic products in the cardiovascular field as an example to explain, 'The incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in China is in a continuous upward trend, with the current number of patients with cardiovascular disease reaching approximately 0.33 billion. In the composition ratio of disease deaths among rural and urban residents in our country, cardiovascular disease ranks first and accounted for 48.98% and 47.35% of the causes of death in rural and urban areas respectively in 2021.'

Dai Lizhong said that personalized medication guidance based on genetic testing can effectively help clinicians achieve individualized and differentiated medication, thereby improving the safety and efficacy of drug treatment and preventing the occurrence of serious adverse drug reactions. Sansure Biotech Inc. will continue to improve the layout of pharmacogenomics products in the future.

In this context, Sansure Biotech Inc.'s expenses are rapidly increasing. In the first half of 2024, research and development expenses were 0.118 billion yuan, an increase of 29.93% year-on-year, and sales expenses were 0.224 billion yuan, an increase of 44.81% year-on-year.