Five years later, knocking on the door again: Unprofitable pharmaceutical company Haihe Biopharma restarts STAR Market IPO with new standards

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On May 28, Shanghai Haihe Pharmaceutical Research and Development Co., Ltd. (“Haihe Pharma”) submitted its Sci-Tech Innovation Board (STAR Market) IPO prospectus to the Shanghai Stock Exchange and received acceptance.

This innovative anti-tumor drug company, whose actual controller is Academician Ding Jian of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, is making another push towards the STAR Market after nearly five years.

Back in 2021, Haihe Pharma’s STAR Market IPO application had already been accepted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange and even proceeded to the review meeting but was ultimately rejected by the Listing Committee.

The main reason was Haihe Pharma’s inability to demonstrate independent R&D capabilities.

At that time, Haihe Pharma, which had no drugs approved for commercialization, applied for listing using Standard V of the STAR Market; however, the Listing Committee believed that its core products in Phase II or above clinical trials were all sourced from licensing or collaborative R&D. They deemed that Haihe Pharma failed to accurately disclose whether substantial improvements had been independently made to the licensed or co-developed core products, and whether there was technical dependence on partners.

This directly led to the failure of Haihe Pharma’s first IPO attempt.

Compared to the previous IPO, Haihe Pharma has now transitioned from “pure R&D investment” to the commercialization phase.

As of this IPO application, Haihe Pharma already had three products approved for market, namely: Guomeitini Tablets for non-small cell lung cancer, Paclitaxel Oral Solution for gastric cancer and other solid tumors, and Risolisib Mesylate Tablets for OCCC with PIK3CA gene mutation after disease progression with chemotherapy.

It is precisely due to these fundamental changes that Haihe Pharma switched to a new set of listing standards—moving from Standard V to Standard II.

The prospectus shows that Haihe Pharma has chosen Standard II for this listing, i.e., expected market value not less than 1.5 billion yuan, revenue of not less than 200 million yuan in the most recent year, and cumulative R&D investment over the past three years accounting for not less than 15% of cumulative revenue.

Specifically, Guomeitini Tablets are currently Haihe Pharma’s main revenue source, generating 330 million yuan in 2025, accounting for over 80% of total revenue.

It is worth noting that Guomeitini Tablets was precisely the drug Haihe Pharma had introduced back then,

This time Haihe Pharma has also emphasized its own technical contributions to this drug, such as optimizing the synthesis route of the active pharmaceutical ingredient, redesigning the formulation, applying hot melt extrusion technology to create a stable solid dispersion, and developing an effective recrystallization method.

Whether this will gain regulatory recognition remains to be seen.

Nevertheless, Haihe Pharma is still not profitable.

From 2023 to 2025, Haihe Pharma’s net losses were -537 million yuan, -244 million yuan, and -267 million yuan respectively, totaling over 1 billion yuan in three years.

Five years ago, Haihe Pharma was rejected due to doubts about its independent R&D as most core products were licensed in; now, the company returns with commercialization achievements and new listing standards, but has yet to overcome its unprofitable status.

For Haihe Pharma, which is making a second attempt at the STAR Market, how to convert its commercial progress into more robust and sustainable profitability amidst continued high losses and reliance on a single product remains the core challenge for this IPO.

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