The company has pared its annual losses but faces high costs and competitive challenges to deliver its voluntary vaccine into a tight market
image credit: Bamboo Works
Key Takeaways:
- The biotech slashed its R&D costs by nearly 29% last year and shrank its annual loss by around 10% ahead of the planned vaccine launch
- But bank borrowings surged, pushing the gearing ratio up from 18.7% to 36.5%
China’s vaccine industry has been battling through a tough year, as dwindling demand and price wars have pushed some leading suppliers into the red. Beijing Luzhu Biotechnology Co. Ltd. (2480.HK) is now preparing to launch its core product, a shingles vaccine, into this troubled market.
How best to navigate the competitive environment for new vaccines is a key question for the company. Its latest earnings report released in mid-March suggests the strategy for now is to sharply rein in R&D costs and other expenses to limit its losses.
The results did not offer much of a booster shot as Luzhu Biotech prepares for the expected launch this year of its recombinant herpes zoster vaccine against shingles, a painful condition triggered by the chickenpox virus.
The firm announced a loss of 150 million yuan ($22 million) for 2025, 10.6% smaller than the deficit it reported a year earlier. Research and development spending fell nearly 29% to 96.48 million yuan, benefiting from lower clinical expenses after Phase Three trials for the flagship shingles vaccine were largely completed. The company also slashed administrative expenses by 20% to 51.79 million yuan.
However, the cost controls could not contain the blow from shrinking government grants and bank interest. The amount logged as other income nearly halved from the previous year, falling 48.4% to 11.03 million yuan. Meanwhile, the balance of other gains and losses turned from a net positive of 11.82 million yuan in 2024 …