INNOGEN-B (02591): Losses nearly doubled in 2025, stock price plummeted over 70% amid transformation pains.

The year 2025 is a crucial year for strategic transformation for INNOGEN-B (02591), as the company transitions from a focus on research and development to a company that simultaneously focuses on research, development, and commercialization. During the year, the company's core product, Isupaglupeptide successfully obtained approval for the indication of type 2 diabetes (T2D), was commercially launched in mainland China and Macau, achieved medical insurance access and overseas registration, and continued to advance the metabolic disease pipeline. Benefiting from the commercialization of Isupaglupeptide , Yinnuo Medicine achieved scale revenue for the first time in 2025, with an annual revenue of approximately 132 million yuan (RMB). However, behind the breakthrough in revenue, it still highlights the typical performance pain of innovative pharmaceutical companies in the early stages of commercialization. Due to increased research and development investment, expansion of the sales team, and increased market development efforts, the company incurred a loss of approximately 341 million yuan during the year, a 95.4% increase in losses compared to the previous year. At the same time, the significant rise in current liabilities also increased short-term debt repayment pressure. On the capital market front, the performance of Yinnuo Medicine's stock price reflects the market's cautious attitude towards its investment. After reaching a historical high of 74 Hong Kong dollars in the early stages of listing, the stock has shown a volatile downward trend. As of the close on April 2, 2026, the company's stock price was 20.86 Hong Kong dollars, with a year-to-date decline of 31.92%, indicating that market confidence still needs further restoration. High research and development and sales investment suppress profits Isupaglupeptide is a long-acting GLP-1 receptor agonist approved in China, with an ultralong half-life, good safety and tolerability, and has shown differentiation potential in terms of convenience of administration, blood glucose control, and metabolic benefits. The product was approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in 2025 and was included in the National Medical Insurance Drug List in December of the same year, effective from January 1, 2026. The product was also included in the "National Primary Diabetes Prevention and Control Management Guidelines (2025)", enhancing the product's academic recognition and grassroots promotion space. In addition to T2D, the company is advancing the clinical development of the product in the areas of obesity, overweight, and MASH, and is also registering in some overseas markets. In 2025, sales of Isupaglupeptide were the main source of revenue for Yinnuo Medicine. Due to accounting policies that include pre-commercialization production costs in research and development expenses, the company's sales cost in 2025 was only 14.452 million yuan, with a gross margin of 89%. This high gross margin is a result of phase-based accounting treatment and does not represent the true full-cost profit level of the product. As scale production and operations mature, the gross margin may return. Despite the outstanding gross profit performance on paper, the company still incurred a significant loss. The basic loss per share in 2025 was 0.79 yuan, significantly larger than the 0.42 yuan in 2024, primarily due to the high intensity of investment in research and development and sales, which significantly exceeded the level of income for the period. Furthermore, the company launched Isupaglupeptide for the treatment of T2D in mainland China and Macau in February and September 2025, generating short revenue coverage periods, while expenses were accrued based on a full calendar year, leading to a mismatch between investment and revenue generation. In terms of expenditure structure, research and development expenditure in 2025 doubled from approximately 103 million yuan in 2024 to approximately 206 million yuan, mainly used for the optimization of the production process of Isupaglupeptide , clinical advancement of obesity and overweight indications, and related material investment. Sales and distribution expenses also increased significantly from 2.386 million yuan to approximately 177 million yuan, mainly due to the company's rapid establishment of a commercial team, expanding from 5 to 89 personnel, and simultaneously carrying out academic promotion and channel development, leading to increased related investments. The expansion of expenses has brought financial pressure, which is reflected to some extent on the liability side. By the end of 2025, the company's current liabilities increased from about 138 million yuan in 2024 to about 505 million yuan, a 265.4% increase, with the asset-liability ratio rising 18 percentage points to 33% year-on-year. Among them, the unsecured interest-bearing bank borrowings due within one year increased from 9.9 million yuan to 150 million yuan, accounts payable for CDMO production and process improvements increased by 134 million yuan, and marketing-related accrued expenses increased by 88.9 million yuan, adding pressure on operating payables and short-term debt repayment. Challenges in the GLP-1 weight loss track Faced with performance and short-term debt pressure, Yinnuo Medicine has a clear path to improving its situation, focusing on accelerating the sales volume of its core product Isupaglupeptide . The company stated in its financial report that it expects to continue advancing the commercialization process of the product for the treatment of T2D in 2026. If successful, the company can offset fixed cost pressures through revenue growth, gradually improving operating cash flow. In addition, whether the metabolic disease pipeline can actual clinical results and market gains is also a key focus. Obesity and overweight are important areas for the company's pipeline expansion and a golden track in the GLP-1 pathway with significant market demand. The financial report shows that in 2025, Yinnuo Medicine continued to advance the phase III clinical research of Isupaglupeptide for the treatment of obesity and overweight in China, with patients in the indication entering the phase III clinical trial during the year, and top-line data expected to be released before the end of 2026. Isupaglupeptide has shown an ultralong half-life of approximately 280 hours in overweight and obese patients, and has shown good development potential in weight management. The 20 mg once-weekly dosing regimen in the phase IIb clinical trial achieved a 10.6% reduction in weight by week 18, without reaching a plateau, and the 20 mg biweekly dosing regimen also achieved a 9.7% reduction in weight, as well as improving patient body composition, with an average increase of 19.7% in muscle-fat ratio. Overseas, the phase II clinical trial for obesity and overweight in Australia has been completed, exploring various dosing regimens of weekly, biweekly, and monthly administration, paving the way for global clinical development. In addition, the company is also advancing into the new indication of adolescent weight management, targeting unmet clinical needs in this area. It is worth noting that although GLP-1 drugs have good growth prospects, in the process of translating into incremental performance for the company, they still face many challenges. It is understood that many domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies are exploring the business opportunities of GLP-1 drugs and are actively entering the weight loss market. For example, Novo Nordisk's weight-loss version of semaglutide (Ozempic) was launched in China in 2024, and after the core compound patent expired on March 20, 2026, generic drugs are expected to be approved in quick succession, increasing market competition and potentially significant price reductions. In addition, Yinnuo Medicine may also face risks in overseas clinical research development, such as high costs, long cycles, uncertain approval processes, and the possibility that candidate drugs may not meet expectations in terms of research and development, approval, and commercialization. Facing three key tests in 2026 2026 is a critical year to verify the effectiveness of the company's transformation, with key observations focused on three areas: the real sales volume capacity of Isupaglupeptide after the implementation of medical insurance, as the company's current core revenue source, the speed of channel coverage and sales volume growth will directly affect the improvement of the company's operating cash flow and loss reduction progress; the phase III clinical data on obesity and overweight indications, which are the core blue ocean markets in the GLP-1 pathway, if the data can continue the weight loss effects and safety advantages shown in phase IIb, it will lay a key foundation for subsequent marketing applications, further expanding the product's market space; progress in overseas registration, the company has submitted BLA applications to Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and Latin American countries, and the approval progress in these markets will be an important milestone for the company's global expansion, providing new support for long-term growth. With increasing competition in the GLP-1 pathway, Yinnuo Medicine needs to rely on the differentiation advantages of product compliance and safety, leverage the medical insurance dividend to accelerate channel penetration, and quickly increase market share. For investors, the company is still in a typical high investment cycle for innovative drugs, with clear performance fluctuations and cash flow pressures. Investors should be wary of risks such as clinical data falling short of expectations, medical insurance volume-speed not meeting expectations, and price wars for generic drugs leading to a decline in gross profit margins. Investors can focus on key data such as revenue data, obesity clinical data, and progress in overseas registration in 2026, combine with the effectiveness of commercialization and pipeline progress to make a comprehensive judgment on the company's value, rather than defining its value purely based on short-term gains and losses.