After Pfizer's oral new crown drug was approved for listing in China with conditions, A-shares and related concept stocks in the Hong Kong stock market "moved by the wind".
On the morning of February 14, the three stocks in the A-share capital market, Yaben Chemical (300261.SZ), Jianfeng Group (600668.SH), and Essence Pharmaceutical (002349.SZ), had their intra-day daily limit. Behind the sharp rise, It is related to market speculation that these companies may be suppliers of raw materials related to Pfizer's new crown drugs.
In some stocks, some investors even called these three companies the "Three Musketeers" of Pfizer's new crown medicine.
The first financial reporter learned from the board secretary office of Yaben Chemical, Jianfeng Group, and Essence Pharmaceuticals that they have not received the relevant Pfizer oral new crown drug orders.
"We have done relevant rumors in the announcements we released earlier. There is no need to further adjust the content of the earlier announcements. You can refer to our earlier announcements." The replies of these three companies are basically the same.
Specifically, Yaben Chemical stated in the announcement issued on February 8 that the company has no business contact and cooperation with Pfizer, has not signed a cooperation agreement with Pfizer, and has not supplied carron anhydride products to Pfizer, and Pfizer has not Provide the company with any quality standards for the procurement of front-end raw materials for new crown oral drugs, and the company's customer refuses to provide the end use of the company's caron anhydride and its derivatives. Through relevant technical verification, it is impossible to determine whether the carronic anhydride product produced by the company is or can become an intermediate for Pfizer's new crown oral drug.
At the same time, the announcement issued by Jianfeng Group on December 30, 2021 stated that before the company indirectly acquired Shanghai North Carolina, the latter sold "carenolactone, carronic acid, carronic anhydride in March 2013" The production patent of "New Synthesis Method of Its Key Intermediates" (application number: 2011102478118), which currently does not hold, and the authorization of the patent holder is required when using this patent.
In addition, the patent (patent number: ZL201010609467.8) of the "New Synthesis Method of Carron Acid Anhydride (alias: Carron Acid Anhydride)" invented by Shanghai North Carolina in the early stage has low yield, high cost and no competitive advantage. .
In 2021, the sales revenue of carron anhydride in Shanghai North Carolina is about 0.39% of the company's total sales revenue in 2020. All sales customers are domestic customers, and the company cannot determine the purpose of customers.
Essence Pharma stated in an announcement on January 26 that the board of directors has not been informed of the information that the company should disclose according to the "Shenzhen Stock Exchange Listing Rules" and other relevant regulations, but has not disclosed information that has a greater impact on the company's stock trading price.
Which stocks in the capital market are likely to be Pfizer's new crown drug-related concept stocks?
Pfizer’s oral new crown drug is a small-molecule drug composed of a combination of nematevir and ritonavir. The former can block the activity of the new coronavirus 3CL protease, which is an enzyme required for coronavirus replication and blocks its activity. This in turn blocks viral replication, and ritonavir is an HIV drug.
In this compound preparation, the role of ritonavir is to slow down the metabolism or decomposition rate of nematevir, so that the effective concentration in the body can be maintained for a long time, with its antiviral activity.
On the evening of February 13, Ascletis Pharma (01672.HK), which is listed in Hong Kong, announced that it had submitted ritonavir (100 mg film-coated tablets) to Germany, France, Ireland and the United Kingdom through European agents. Licensing applications, and other marketing authorization applications for ritonavir in European countries, North American countries and Asia-Pacific countries are also expected to be submitted in the near future.
On the morning of February 14, Ascletis Pharma’s intraday share price rose by more than 14%.
Ascletis Pharma's oral ritonavir tablets were approved for marketing in China in September 2021.
On January 3, 2022, Ascletis Pharma also expanded the production of the drug, with an annual production capacity of 100 million tablets.
However, Ascletis has not disclosed whether it has reached a cooperation with Pfizer.
The company said in its February 13 announcement that it continues to negotiate cooperation with domestic and international companies, including large multinational pharmaceutical companies, on the commercial supply of ritonavir in China and globally.
In addition, on February 11, a Chinese pharmaceutical company Porton (300363.SZ) also announced that it has recently received a new batch of "Purchase Orders" from PfizerIreland Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of the multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer, and the company will provide it with contract customized research and development. Production (CDMO) services, the total order amount reached 681 million US dollars, which will reach about 4.3 billion yuan if converted into RMB.
The time of the announcement of Proton shares was exactly the day before Pfizer’s oral new crown drug was approved in China.
The market also speculated that the order may be an order for Pfizer's oral new crown drug.
On the morning of February 14, the share price of Proton shares also hit the daily limit.
The first financial reporter also asked Boten for confirmation, and the other party said that based on the customer confidentiality agreement, the company is currently unable to disclose more cooperation information.