Shenzhen-listed traditional medicine makers ride high on endorsement by public face of China’s fight against coronavirus
- Yiling and Chase Sun’s drugs are recommended by Zhong Nanshan, who has collaborated with the firms for years
- Yiling, the maker of Lianhua Qingwen capsules, reported 57 per cent jump in net profit for first half of 2020
Two Shenzhen-listed makers of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical and Tianjin Chase Sun Pharmaceutical, have reaped stunning gains this year, riding on endorsements by the public face of China’s successful fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Yiling reported a 57 per cent jump in net profit to 714 million yuan (US$106 million) for the first half of 2020, while its stock price surged by as much as 245 per cent between January and mid April, hitting its highest level since it went public in 2011. Chase Sun recorded 2.8 billion yuan in revenue for the first half, a 22 per cent increase compared with the same period last year.
Their fortunes came even as growth in the overall TCM industry stalled, with only 17 out of 68 TCM makers listed in China recording year-on-year growth in revenue in the first half of 2020, according to companies’ earnings reports.
Yiling was founded in 1992 by TCM practitioner Wu Yiling, who is famous for developing a concoction of leech, whole scorpion, centipede, soil beetle and cicada slough used to treat cardiovascular diseases.
Both Wu and Zhong are academicians at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the highest academic title conferred by Beijing to engineers and scientists, and have collaborated since at least 2015, when Wu invited Zhong to join a 460 million yuan research lab set up for academicians by his company. In 2016, they co-founded a research centre to tackle lung diseases using TCM in the southern city of Guangzhou.