Führende Pharma-Aktien starten eine "Bewertungsverteidigungskampagne"

While the innovative drug sector has been in a continuous downward trend and market sentiment has been rather subdued, several pharmaceutical companies have announced share buyback plans or started repurchasing shares to boost investor confidence.

On the 15th, China Biopharmaceutical (01177.HK), a leading company in the innovative drug field, issued an announcement stating that it would repurchase shares worth up to HK$2 billion in the next 12 months. It directly said, "The company's value is currently significantly undervalued."

The above - mentioned buyback is not an isolated case. Recently, Kangfang Biotech (09926.HK) has launched a package of "HK$200 million buyback + HK$50 million capital increase by management"; WuXi AppTec's (603259.SH) RMB 1 billion buyback plan has already been implemented; companies such as InnoCare Pharma - B (09606.HK), Hengrui Medicine (600276.SH), and Baili Tianheng (688506.SH) have also successively repurchased their company's shares.

In this regard, the interviewed industry experts believe that this indicates that some companies think that the current stock price does not fully reflect the company's value. The buyback can improve market sentiment. The re - evaluation of China's innovative drug sector ultimately depends on the implementation of commercialization, global capabilities, and continuous improvement of profitability.

Large pharmaceutical companies intensively start the "self - buy mode"

Repurchasing a company's shares with "real money" and issuing an announcement is often the strongest statement a listed company can make.

In the Hong Kong stock market, China Biopharmaceutical directly stated in the announcement that the board of directors had noticed that the company's stock price had fluctuated significantly recently and believed that the current company value was "significantly undervalued". It hoped to boost investor confidence and increase returns for shareholders as soon as possible through the share buyback plan. According to the announcement, the company has purchased a total of 60.35 million shares since the beginning of the year, with a total cost of about HK$338 million.

Recently, Kangfang Biotech announced that the board of directors had approved the use of up to HK$200 million to purchase the company's shares on the stock exchange. At the same time, Xia Yu, the chairman of the board and CEO of the company, as well as several core managers, plan to increase their holdings of the company's shares with personal funds, with the upper limit of the increase amount being HK$50 million. The company said that the current stock price did not fully reflect the company's intrinsic value and business prospects.

Also noteworthy is InnoCare Pharma, an ADC star company that was recently listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The announcement shows that the company has repurchased a total of 255,400 shares as of early June and spent about HK$53.31 million on it.

The reporter from Cailian Press noticed that "undervaluation" has almost become a common keyword in the buyback announcements of this round, whether it is for companies under HKEx Rule 18A or leading companies in the innovative drug field that have already entered the commercialization phase.

The background of this phenomenon is that the innovative drug sector has undergone a significant correction. Since the beginning of the year, the stock price of industry giant China Biopharmaceutical has fluctuated downward, and its valuation has decreased significantly. From the company's perspective, it is now in a range of significant undervaluation.

Even Kangfang Biotech, which presented historical and sensational Phase III clinical data of HARMONi - 6 (AK112/Evosimab) at the ASCO Annual Meeting 2026 and whose pipeline value was unanimously favored by several major banks, was also under pressure during this market correction. The stock price fell on several days after the data was released, with the maximum daily decline exceeding 8%.

The correction in this innovative drug sector was very strong this round. Take the Morgan CSI Innovative Drug Industry ETF, which tracks China's A - share innovative drug industry, as an example. Since 2026, its market value has fallen by more than 10%. The Fuguo Hong Kong Stock Connect Innovative Drug and Healthcare ETF, which represents the trend of biotech stocks in Hong Kong, has also shown weak performance. From the phased high point in early February 2026 to mid - June, the net value has decreased by almost 20% in four months, and the total loss for the year exceeds 17%.

There are also signs of an increasing trend of buybacks and capital increases in the A - share innovative drug sector. As a leading company in China's innovative drug field, Hengrui Medicine has continuously promoted share buybacks. As of June 8, 2026, the cumulative buyback amount was about RMB 792 million. After completing the first buyback plan of about RMB 200 million this year, Baili Tianheng presented a second buyback plan in early June, with the upper limit of the buyback amount being RMB 200 million. The total upper limit of the two plans reaches RMB 400 million. At Junshi Biosciences (688180.SH), the capital increase plan of RMB 100 million previously announced by Xiong Jun, one of the chairmen and the actual controller of the company, has been completed, and the cumulative capital increase amount exceeded RMB 100 million.

WuXi AppTec, the leading company in the CRO field, has also joined the buyback trend. The company recently announced the launch of a new RMB 1 billion buyback plan for A - shares, which is to be used for the employee stock ownership plan. According to the latest announcement, the company has already spent nearly RMB 100 million and repurchased more than 1 million shares on the day when the buyback was first carried out.

According to Guo Shiliang, an expert at the Whale Platform Think Tank and a financial commentator, the intensive buyback activities of listed companies are essentially an important means to stabilize market expectations. "Capital increases by company managers and buybacks by listed companies often mean that the management believes that the stock price has already entered a range of reasonable or even undervalued value. Such measures help to stabilize investor sentiment and send a signal to the market that the company recognizes its own long - term value."

Yang Tao, a manager of a biopharmaceutical company, told the Cailian Press reporter that the recent buyback phenomenon indicated that there was a certain cognitive assessment error between the capital market valuation and the industry fundamentals. "In the past, market funds have tended to chase hot business areas, while the innovative drug sector as a whole has been under great valuation pressure. But from an industry perspective, the current market prices of many companies do not fully reflect their true value."

According to Yang Tao, both the company buyback and the capital increase by management are essentially an active affirmation of the company's long - term development prospects. "The fact that a company is willing to spend real money on buybacks already shows that the management believes in the company's future development."

From "financing transfusion" to "money buyback"

For the innovative drug industry, share buybacks used to be a rather luxurious thing. In the past ten years, China's innovative drug industry has always been in a phase of high investment. Whether it is target selection, clinical development, or the establishment of a commercialization system, continuous and huge financial resources are required. For a long time, financing ability was even regarded as an important indicator of a biotech company's survival ability.

After the introduction of HKEx Rule 18A in 2018, a series of unprofitable innovative drug companies have entered the capital market. In the following years, capital increases through share allotment and private placements were almost the norm in the industry. For investors, it was more important to know how much cash the company had in its account, at what stage its core pipeline was, and whether the next financing could be successfully completed, rather than profits and cash flows.

With the increasing wave of overseas expansion of innovative drugs, Chinese pharmaceutical companies from ADC, bispecific antibodies to GLP - 1 have repeatedly set new records in large licensing agreements with international pharmaceutical companies. The continuous inflow of upfront payments, milestone payments, and sales shares has begun to change the development model of innovative drug companies, which has long been dependent on external financing.

And now, the abundant cash flow is the strongest support for this round of buybacks by pharmaceutical companies. Under the condition that the innovative drug industry is generally facing a narrower external financing window and high R & D investment, the companies that can easily spend large sums of money on buybacks are all "cash cows" with abundant funds in their accounts. Both China Biopharmaceutical and Kangfang Biotech clearly emphasized in their announcements that the buyback funds would come entirely from the company's existing available funds and would have no significant adverse impact on the company's financial situation.

"The 'crazy overvaluation' of the capital market on innovative drugs in recent years has quickly returned to rationality. The 'PPT era', in which one could previously obtain financing only with 'stories and pipeline promises', is finally over." Yang Tao directly told the Cailian Press reporter. He pointed out that the industry has now returned to the simplest business logics. Capital and the market focus on hard indicators such as marketability, cash flow, and profits. "Without these core financial indicators, a pharmaceutical company cannot survive for long in the current market situation, let alone have extra money for the 'self - share buyback'."

On the other hand, the rational re - evaluation of expectations for the commercialization dividend in the Chinese domestic market is leading pharmaceutical companies "back to the starting point".

Yang Tao told the Cailian Press reporter that in the past, there was an optimistic expectation in the industry that "the Chinese domestic market with 1.4 billion people is large enough, and an innovative drug can easily achieve huge commercial profits after being launched on the market". But with the increasing number of homogeneous and follow - up innovative drugs on the market and the normalization of drug negotiations and group purchases, the actual commercial value achieved in the Chinese market has deviated from previous expectations.

"The current commercial profit is lower than the expectations of some investors. Both the industry and the capital market have generally lowered their expectations for the commercialization dividend in the Chinese domestic market." Yang Tao believes that this forces pharmaceutical companies to shift from "blind pipeline expansion" to "competition for commercial efficiency". And the leading pharmaceutical companies that are successful first and achieve continuous commercial cash flows naturally have more power to stabilize the capital market situation at the valuation bottom.

The long - term and profitable industry logic remains unchanged

Guo Shiliang told the Cailian Press reporter that technology sectors such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors have been continuously hot. In the context of the existing competition in the secondary market, the "money - attracting effect" of the technology mainstream has not diminished, which has led to the pharmaceutical sector being subject to a continuous "outflow of funds" and the stock price remaining low. But from an industry perspective, the long - term and profitable industry logic of the innovative drug sector remains unchanged.

After years of development, overseas expansion (License - out) has become the core driving force for the development of China's innovative drug industry. Thanks to China's large population, the total cost of clinical research in China is much lower than in European and American countries. This gives Chinese innovative drugs a fundamental advantage of continuous low - cost output. After joining the ICH (International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use), clinical studies in China can be globally integrated.

"Although the international recognition of China's research quality has increased significantly, the question 'how high is the international recognition and acceptance of Chinese clinical data?' is still a tough test for Chinese pharmaceutical companies going overseas." Yang Tao admitted that the sentiment in some large BD deals has fluctuated greatly recently, and a single deal would not be enough to turn the entire sector around. Chinese pharmaceutical companies must prove on the international market that they have real global commercial operation capabilities.

Against this background, the intensive buyback activities in this round rather show the characteristics of a strong defense and the establishment of a bottom in the pharmaceutical sector to "exchange time for space".

"The problems that pharmaceutical and healthcare companies are currently facing are quite complex and belong to the systemic problems of the industry. But the intensive buyback activities have firmly established the 'valuation bottom'." Guo Shiliang judged. He believes that with the release of panic sentiment in the market and the gradual entry of buyback funds, the foundation of the industry will be accelerated to be consolidated.

"After the bubble bursts, the industry quickly returns to rationality. In the future, funds will inevitably flow more quickly to leading pharmaceutical companies with'money, pipeline, and cash - flow strength'." Yang Tao finally emphasized to the reporter that short - term fluctuations in the secondary market cannot change the long - term trend of the advancing industry. Currently, Chinese pharmaceutical companies are undergoing a qualitative change from "Made in China" to "Created in China" and finally to "China's Innovative Services for the World". The technological path is also changing from follow - up innovation to true originality (First