On September 13th, Imming Biopharma (01541.HK) continued its surge, with intraday gains peaking at 61.7%, leading the Hong Kong stock market's gain list.

As of press time, the stock's increase has narrowed to 28.65%, trading at 4.94 Hong Kong dollars per share.

It is worth noting that Imming Biopharma's performance on the previous day (September 12th) was also quite impressive, with a rise of 17.07%.

The cumulative increase over the past two trading days has exceeded 50%.

The sudden surge in Imming Biopharma's stock price is related to news of its products "hitching a ride to go overseas" and making profits!

On September 11th, Imming Biopharma announced that, according to the licensing and cooperation agreement on IMM2510 and IMM27M reached with SynBioTx on August 1st, it has received a second payment of 5 million US dollars.

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To date, the project cooperation has collected an initial payment (received on August 22nd) and a second payment totaling 15 million US dollars.

In addition, according to the agreement, the company expects to receive up to 35 million US dollars in remaining potential payments in the future.

According to the announcement on August 1st, Imming Biopharma and SynBioTx Inc. have reached an exclusive external licensing agreement: Imming Biopharma has authorized SynBioTx Inc. to develop and commercialize two of its innovative pipeline products, IMM2510 (VEGFxPD-L1 mAb-Trap) and IMM27M (CTLA-4, ADCC-enhanced), outside the Greater China region.

At that time, the agreement also mentioned that Imming Biopharma will receive up to 50 million US dollars in initial payments and potential near-term payments, and a total of up to 2.1 billion US dollars in commercial, development, and regulatory milestone payments, as well as royalties ranging from single to low double-digit percentages based on global (excluding Greater China) net sales.

Imming Biopharma is a research-oriented biotechnology company dedicated to developing cancer immunotherapies.

Among them, IMM2510 is independently developed by Imming Biopharma and can inhibit angiogenesis, reduce tumor size, and make tumor cells more sensitive to immune responses.

As for IMM27M, it is a new generation of cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated protein 4 antibody with enhanced ADCC activity.

It can induce a strong immune response targeting CTLA-4 overexpressing regulatory T cells with immunosuppressive effects, promoting the clearance of regulatory T cells from the tumor microenvironment (TME), thereby enhancing the anti-tumor response of T cells.

In fact, the external cooperation of IMM2510 and IMM27M is just a phased achievement in the innovative research and development process of Imming Biopharma.

The core product of Imming Biopharma is actually Tidaparxip (IMM01) - a SIRPα-Fc fusion protein targeting CD47.

It is reported that CD47 is a key macrophage checkpoint that is expressed on the surface of many tumor cells, and it conveys a "do not eat me" signal by binding to SIRPα on the surface of macrophages, thus allowing it to escape the attack of macrophages.

Therefore, CD47 has always been considered by the industry as another potential "money-absorbing" target in the field of immunotherapy after PD-1.

It is worth mentioning that although many multinational pharmaceutical companies, including Gilead Sciences, AbbVie, and Pfizer, have entered the field, there has been no successful drug to date.

Tian Wenzhi, the founder and chairman of Imming Biopharma, once said in an interview that once a company can break through, the competitive pressure will also decrease.

Regarding the progress of Tidaparxip (IMM01) - a SIRPα-Fc fusion protein targeting CD47.

It is reported that in June 2024, Imming Biopharma obtained the IND approval for the phase III clinical trial of IMM01 in combination with azacitidine as the first-line treatment for chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) from the National Medical Products Administration.

From a performance perspective, although the continuous landing of innovative pipelines and the profits from external licensing cooperation have excited investors, like many innovative pharmaceutical companies, Imming Biopharma has not yet made a profit.

Financial reports show that in the first half of this year, the company's revenue was 77,000 yuan, a year-on-year decline of 10.47%; the net profit attributable to the parent company continued to lose 166 million yuan.

Some industry insiders analyzed that innovative pharmaceutical companies have a large R&D investment, and it is often difficult to make a profit in the early stage, and long-term losses may pose risks such as capital chain rupture, decreased market competitiveness, and delayed research and development results.

For Imming Biopharma, the funds obtained from the "hitchhiking" of its products will help to replenish the company's liquidity, help to speed up the commercialization process of the company's products, and accelerate the company's self-sufficiency ability, which is considered a short-term good news.