The sharp decline in BD revenue dragged down the performance, and CSPC Pharmaceutical Group's net profit tumbled in Q1.

On May 27th, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group Limited (01093.HK) released its first-quarter report for 2026. The financial report shows that during the reporting period, the company achieved revenues of 6.465 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.8%; the profit attributable to shareholders was 860 million yuan, a year-on-year decline of 41.8%.

Looking at different segments, in the first quarter of 2026, the revenue of CSPC's proprietary Chinese and chemical drugs segment was 5.224 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5%; the revenue of the raw material products segment was 796 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 25.7%; the revenue of the functional food and other segments was 445 million yuan, a slight year-on-year increase of 0.5%. Among them, the decline in raw material product revenues was mainly affected by the price drops of vitamin C products and penicillin products.

Regarding the significant decrease in the profit attributable to shareholders in the first quarter, CSPC explained that it was mainly due to the relatively high licensing fee revenues recorded in the same period last year. If the impact of licensing fee revenues is excluded, the profit attributable to the company's shareholders in the current period is 736 million yuan, a 7.3% decrease compared to the same period last year.

The financial report data shows that the licensing fee revenues recognized in the first quarter of 2026 were 146 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 79% compared to 718 million yuan in the same period last year.

As a representative of traditional Chinese pharmaceutical companies transitioning to innovation, CSPC has been an active participant in the BD (Business Development) market in recent years. In 2025, CSPC completed a total of 5 BD transactions. At the end of January this year, CSPC reached a strategic cooperation with AstraZeneca worth up to $18.5 billion. The upfront payment alone was as high as $1.2 billion, setting a new record and becoming the largest overseas licensing deal for a Chinese pharmaceutical company. According to the agreement, the two parties will jointly develop innovative long-acting peptide drugs based on CSPC's long-acting sustained-release drug delivery technology platform and AI discovery platform for peptide drugs.

However, the impact of BD on Chinese pharmaceutical companies has entered a new stage. On the one hand, according to data released by Pharmcube, the total value of Chinese innovative drug BD transactions in the first quarter of 2026 reached $61.4 billion, exceeding the total transactions for the whole of 2024 and accounting for 69.7% of the global total transaction value. China has become the core of the global new drug trading market.

On the other hand, for traditional giants like CSPC, although BD cooperation can bring considerable cash flow, it cannot reverse the downward trend in performance caused by centralized procurement and the under - performance of new drugs in the short term. In addition, there are also disputes in the industry about the phenomenon of some domestic pharmaceutical companies licensing early - stage, immature innovative drug projects (so - called "young seedlings") to large multinational pharmaceutical companies at low prices.

Times Finance noticed that affected by centralized procurement, CSPC's operating revenues have declined for two consecutive years. The financial report data shows that from 2024 to 2025, the company's revenues were 29.009 billion yuan and 26.005 billion yuan respectively, with year - on - year decreases of 7.8% and 10.4% respectively.

The uncertainty of BD revenues is also reflected in the financial reports of many pharmaceutical companies. Take CSPC's first - quarter report this time as an example. Due to the high licensing fee revenues in the same period last year which raised the performance baseline, although the proprietary Chinese and chemical drugs business declined slightly by 5% in the first quarter of this year, the profit attributable to shareholders fluctuated by more than 40%.

There is also a phenomenon of BD aesthetic fatigue in the secondary market. Since the beginning of this year, after many pharmaceutical companies, including CSPC, announced BD transactions, their stock prices have fallen instead of rising. Among them, after CSPC announced the $18.5 - billion cooperation with AstraZeneca, its stock price dropped by more than 10% on the day, and the stock price of its holding subsidiary, Shineway Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (300765.SZ), also plunged by 15.72%.

Behind the performance fluctuations, the successive departures of CSPC's star executives have also attracted industry attention.

On the eve of the release of the financial report, the market spread the news that Hei Yongjiang, the executive president and global chief medical officer of CSPC, had recently left the company. Regarding this, Times Finance contacted CSPC for verification, but as of press time, no positive response had been received.

Public reports show that Hei Yongjiang is a 30 - year veteran in the pharmaceutical industry. He has held senior management positions in many domestic and foreign companies. He joined CSPC in December 2024 and served for about one and a half years. Tianyancha information shows that in April this year, Hei Yongjiang founded Shanghai Huaisibo Biomedical Technology Co., Ltd. and officially started his entrepreneurial journey.

Previously, in September 2024, Liu Yongjun, a well - known immunology, oncology and translational medicine expert, joined CSPC as the executive president and global R & D president, but left to start his own business just three months later.

Some market analysts believe that the departures of the two executives are related to the family power transfer at CSPC. In addition, some voices point the problem to CSPC's organizational structure. At the end of 2025, Cai Lei, the son of CSPC founder Cai Dongchen, succeeded the veteran Zhang Cuilong as the vice - chairman of the company's board of directors and the CEO.

The announcement shows that Cai Lei was born in 1980. He holds a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Beijing Normal University and a doctorate from the National University of Singapore. He joined CSPC in April 2014 and has served as the group's vice - president, vice - president of the marketing operation center, vice - president of the US R & D department, president of the pharmaceutical product sales department, executive president, etc.

In response to questions such as when the impact of centralized procurement on the company's performance will end and the reasons for the successive departures of star executives, Times Finance sent an interview outline to CSPC. As of press time, no reply has been received.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Times Finance APP" (ID: tf - app), author: Du Sumin, published by 36Kr with authorization.