New Stock Outlook | The core product is still in the early stages of research and development. How should we view the "golden content" of Yino Micro Medicine's pipeline?

With the recovery of market liquidity and improvement in industry fundamentals due to policy support, the prosperity of the innovative drug sector is continuously increasing, and the IPO market is also significantly warming up. Data shows that in the first half of 2025, 10 biopharmaceutical companies have successfully landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, exceeding the total for the entire year of 2024, with a total fundraising amount reaching 17.489 billion Hong Kong dollars, close to the peak period in 2021. In this context, a innovative drug company focusing on a "niche" sector going public in Hong Kong has attracted close market attention: recently, Yino Micro Medicine has submitted its IPO application to the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with Citigroup and CICC as its joint sponsors. Public information shows that after completing the final round of C+ financing, the company's post-investment valuation has risen to 485 million US dollars (equivalent to over 3.8 billion Hong Kong dollars). Yino Micro Medicine's research and development pipeline is mainly focused on the relatively "niche" field of oncolytic immunotherapy, with the company's core products currently in phase II clinical trials, still some distance away from actual commercialization. However, it is worth noting that CG Oncology, also specializing in oncolytic therapy, saw its stock price soar when it listed on the Nasdaq last year, with a market value exceeding 2.2 billion US dollars. With the success of CG Oncology in mind, Yino Micro Medicine's potential for a successful IPO could also see a significant increase in its share price. Core products have secured external licensing agreements Yino Micro Medicine is a clinical demand-oriented biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery, development, production, and commercialization of novel oncolytic immunotherapy and engineered exosome therapies using proprietary biotechnology. The company designs and develops a risk-sharing product portfolio, including oncolytic immunotherapy candidates with the best potential for treating solid tumors and innovative engineered exosome therapeutic products with clinical application prospects or direct commercialization. Public information shows that the company currently has no approved commercially available drugs, and has been in a continuous state of losses during the reporting period. In 2023, 2024, and the first three months of 2025, Yino Micro Medicine achieved revenues of approximately 6.772 million yuan, 3.2 million yuan, and 1.287 million yuan respectively; while in the same period, it experienced losses of approximately 482 million yuan, 524 million yuan, and 204 million yuan respectively. It is understood that the company's revenue primarily comes from external licensing and collaboration arrangements, such as the authorization agreement reached with Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding (02607) for MYR-T3011 in 2020. Yino Micro Medicine has received a down payment of 20 million yuan and a royalty payment of 30 million yuan from Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding, with the potential to receive up to a further 1.1 billion yuan in milestone payments after reaching specific milestones, as well as a sales percentage ranging from high single-digit to low double-digit percentages. For the 3 months ended March 31, 2023, 2024, and 2025, the company's research and development expenses have decreased, amounting to 136 million yuan, 112 million yuan, and 18.925 million yuan respectively, accounting for 79.1%, 70.4%, and 62.1% of total operating expenses (equivalent to the sum of research and development expenses and administrative expenses). The research and development expenses for core products accounted for 79.2%, 67.7%, and 52.8% of total research and development expenses in the same period, mainly due to reduced expenses related to clinical development progress, tests, and trials. In terms of financial condition, from 2023 to 2024, the company's net liabilities increased by 41.68% from 1.274 billion yuan to 1.805 billion yuan at the end of 2024, and the cash and cash equivalents decreased from 232 million yuan in the same period last year to 112 million yuan. The company's tense financial situation may also be one of the reasons why Yino Micro Medicine is eager to go public in Hong Kong. What are the prospects for the commercialization of oncolytic therapy in the "niche" sector? For an innovative biopharmaceutical company, besides basic financial data, the most important consideration is obviously the commercialization prospects of the company's research and development pipeline. According to the prospectus, Yino Micro Medicine's product pipeline includes two clinical-stage oncolytic immunotherapy candidates, two preclinical-stage engineered exosome therapy candidates, and three innovative engineered exosome products that can be directly commercialized (including one engineered exosome product registered for commercialization via the INCI route). Among them, the core product MVR-T3011 is a novel oncolytic immunotherapy based on HSV-1, with a mechanism of action that combines potent tumor lysis with the expression of anti-PD-(L)1 antibodies and IL-12, targeting a spectrum of solid tumor types including bladder cancer and a wider range of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. In addition, MVR-T3011 is the world's first HSV-1 product based on oncolytic immunity that has completed Phase I research through systemic intravenous administration, able to tackle metastatic tumors or anatomically difficult-to-reach locally delivered incurable tumors. It is understood that oncolytic immunotherapy is a method of treating cancer using oncolytic viruses that selectively replicate within tumor cells, effectively destroying tumors without damaging normal tissues. The rise and fall of oncolytic immunotherapy can be traced back to 2015. At that time, Amgen's oncolytic virus therapy T-Vec was approved for marketing, becoming the first approved oncolytic virus therapy in the United States. This spurred a wave of investment in oncolytic virus therapy by pharmaceutical companies such as Merck and Johnson & Johnson, but subsequent experiments indicated that T-Vec's efficacy and commercial prospects were not as anticipated, leading to the delisting of Biotech company Oncorus specializing in oncolytic viruses in 2023 due to limited efficacy and financial constraints. Following a period of silence, in May 2024, CG Oncology's oncolytic virus therapy CG0070 achieved positive results in phase III clinical trials, and Replimune's oncolytic virus therapy RP1 showed a significant enhancement of immunological activity compared to T-VEC, sparking renewed industry interest in oncolytic therapy. Although the oncolytic immunotherapy field is still in its early stages, the capital market has shown a high degree of recognition of its potential market prospects: with a phase III bladder cancer oncolytic virus candidate therapy, CG Oncology's market value has reached around 2 billion US dollars. Looking at domestic pharmaceutical companies, the pursuit of oncolytic immunotherapy is not uncommon. According to incomplete statistics from MedMack, in 2024, at least 13 domestic companies focusing on oncolytic viruses have made progress in IND applications, with 2 IND approvals from the FDA, 10 IND approvals from the CDE, and 1 IND acceptance by the CDE. It can be seen that the majority of domestic pharmaceutical companies are in the clinical validation stage of research and development. As of now, Yino Micro Medicine successfully completed the Phase I stage of the IV infusion treatment of advanced solid tumors with MVR-T3011 in the United States in November 2023, and in June 2025, MVR-T3011 successfully administered the first patient in a global multicenter Phase II clinical trial for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). In the future, the company plans to conduct a Phase II clinical trial for NMIBC that is refractory to BCG therapy no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2026 in the United States and China (including papillary and in situ cancer), further expanding indications to encompass MIBC (which accounts for approximately 25% of all newly diagnosed bladder cancer cases). The company plans to conduct a study in China in the first half of 2026 through IIT on the use of MVR-T3011 in combination with anti-PD-(L)1 antibodies for the treatment of MIBC. According to the prospectus, through bladder instillation, MVR-T3011 shows great potential in targeting a variety of subtypes of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), with bladder cancer ranking among the world's top ten most common solid tumors, with a total of 637,400 new cases reported in 2024, of which NMIBC accounts for approximately 75% of all newly diagnosed cases. With the high recurrence rate, deterioration rate, or non-response rate in NMIBC treatment, the clinical demand for MVR-T3011 has vast potential. Yino Micro Medicine's other groundbreaking oncolytic immunotherapy candidate, MVR-C5252, is a new generation treatment option for the urgent clinical need in the area of malignant gliomas. Based on HSV-1, this therapy has been modified to express anti-PD-(L)1 antibodies and IL-12. Compared to MVR-T3011, this further edited vector retains anti-PD-(L)1 antibodies and IL-12 while removing key latent and neurotoxic genes, thereby enhancing the safety of intracranial drug delivery and achieving stronger immune activation in the highly immunosuppressive microenvironment of gliomas. Currently, MVR-C5252 has been granted orphan drug designation (ODD) by the FDA for the treatment of malignant gliomas in August 2022, and the company is collaborating with Duke University to conduct an FDA-registered Phase I IIT for the treatment of high-grade gliomas in the United States to evaluate this candidate drug. According to the information obtained, Yino Micro Medicine's other candidate drugs include commercially available engineered exosome MVR-EX103 (specifically designed to treat skin-related issues and is the world's first engineered exosome to receive INCI certification), MVR-EX104 (aiming to achieve full hair follicle regrowth through the mesenchymal stem cells, hair follicles, and hair at three levels), which has submitted an INCI registration application, MVR-EX105 (aimed at reducing fat and maintaining muscle through local application); engineered exosome MVR-EX101 for clinical use (accelerates multi-level wound healing by coordinating the delivery of four active proteins to treat chronic and acute wounds), MVR-EX107 (for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis), and others. Overall, although the two core products of the company are still in the early stages of research and development, there are still many uncertainties regarding their future commercial prospects. However, in the current strong market for innovative drugs, as one of the first innovative drug companies focusing on oncolytic therapy to go public, Yino Micro Medicine still has the potential to attract significant market attention.