The first major domestic pharmaceutical merger and acquisition of the year has been finalized. On January 13, Hong Kong-listed pharmaceutical leader Sino Biopharmaceutical Limited (01177.HK) announced it will fully acquire domestic siRNA innovator Hejiya Biotech for a total consideration of RMB 1.2 billion. This marks another strategic move by Sino Biopharmaceutical in the small nucleic acid field, following its earlier investment in Shenggen Biotech. This transaction carries significant symbolic weight. As Xie Qirun, Chairperson of the Board of Sino Biopharmaceutical, stated: "Through this strategic acquisition, the Group will comprehensively strengthen its core competitiveness in the small nucleic acid arena, open up new territory in the global trillion-dollar chronic disease treatment market, and continuously bring benefits to patients worldwide." This development once again places Xie Qirun in the spotlight. This 90s-born leader, a fourth-generation member of the Chearavanont family behind the Charoen Pokphand Group, now steers a pharmaceutical giant with a market cap exceeding a hundred billion. While she maintains a relatively low public profile, her strategic moves consistently reveal a sharp, understated acumen, solidifying her emergence as a formidable queen of pharmaceutical investment. The RMB 1.2 billion deal represents her first major foray into M&A within the small nucleic acid space. At the press conference, Xie Qirun discussed the origins of the partnership with Hejiya with a tone of firm conviction. The story dates back to late 2024. Initially, discussions centered solely on potential collaboration for a single product, Kylo-11. However, when Hejiya systematically presented its technology platform and pipeline portfolio, Sino Biopharmaceutical recognized that the company's value extended far beyond just one asset. A year later, the two parties reconvened. This time, they directly broached the subject of an acquisition, reaching an agreement almost immediately. The process moved with astonishing speed, featuring tightly packed negotiations, due diligence, and finalization of terms. The announcement confirms that Sino Biopharmaceutical will acquire 100% of Hejiya Biotech for RMB 1.2 billion. Post-transaction, Hejiya will become a wholly-owned subsidiary, and its team, including founder Dr. Cui Kunyuan, will remain in place. Dr. Cui, who earned his Ph.D. from Rutgers University, has long been dedicated to the small nucleic acid field—a sector once overlooked but now hailed as the "third revolution in pharmaceuticals." Back in 2018, when most domestic players were chasing PD-1 and ADC therapies, he founded Hejiya Biotech, focusing on independent R&D and platform development for small nucleic acid drugs. The company has since established six delivery technology platforms covering both liver-targeted and extrahepatic applications. Four innovative drugs have entered clinical stages, with over 20 candidate projects in preclinical development spanning cardiovascular, metabolic weight loss, and neurological areas. Hejiya has also completed two out-licensing deals—a rare achievement for a company without any marketed products, underscoring the depth of its pipeline and international recognition. A particularly breakthrough asset is its MVIP liver-targeted delivery platform—reportedly the world's first and only clinically validated siRNA delivery system enabling a "once-yearly" dosing regimen. Kylo-11 (targeting LPA), developed using this platform, completed the first patient dosing in a Sino-US international multi-center Phase II clinical trial in October 2025, positioning it as the fastest-advancing small nucleic acid product in China for treating elevated Lipoprotein(a). Since its founding over seven years ago, Hejiya has completed several funding rounds, attracting a roster of specialized healthcare investors, including SDIC Greater Bay Area Fund, Heda Healthcare, Tasly Capital, Huangpu Biopharmaceutical Fund, Shanghai Jianxin Capital, and Nanwan Bai'ao Fund. It is noteworthy that this is not Sino Biopharmaceutical's first bet on the small nucleic acid sector. Just last month, another small nucleic acid firm, Shenggen Biotech, announced the completion of a Series B financing exceeding $110 million, with Sino Biopharmaceutical also participating in the investor lineup. Clearly, this transaction is not merely a simple asset addition but a strategic move to systematically position the company at the forefront of the next-generation drug paradigm. As stated in the announcement, the acquisition is expected to create deep synergies with the Group's mature experience in clinical development and commercial expansion, injecting strong momentum for high-quality sustainable growth and creating long-term, stable value for shareholders. A wave of change is approaching. Beneath a calm surface, intense competition is already underway. This acquisition also brings a young leader back to the forefront: Xie Qirun, the 90s-born helmsman of Sino Biopharmaceutical. Her family's story begins over a century ago. In 1896, Xie Yichu was born in Chenghai, Guangdong. In his early twenties, he ventured to Southeast Asia to make a living, opening a seed shop called Zhengda Zhuang in Bangkok's Chinatown. Few could have predicted that this small seed would grow into a towering enterprise over a century of challenges. Through generations, the Charoen Pokphand Group wove a industrial network spanning over 100 countries, becoming one of Thailand's most influential overseas Chinese business families. In 1979, as China began opening up, CP became the first foreign enterprise to re-enter the Chinese mainland. During its gradual establishment in China, the third generation leader, Xie Bing, astutely identified a promising "long slope with thick snow"—a blue ocean in biomedicine. Starting from 1991, Xie Bing and his wife Zheng Xiangling quietly built a portfolio through investments, joint ventures, and acquisitions, gradually incorporating over ten pharmaceutical companies, including Zhengda Freda, Zhengda Tianqing, and Beijing Tide Pharmaceutical, into their fold. By 2000, they consolidated core assets into Sino Biopharmaceutical, which was then listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. From an initial market valuation of just HKD 3 billion at listing, Sino Biopharmaceutical's market capitalization now exceeds HKD 130 billion. Reviewing this trajectory reveals similarities with the M&A paths of multinational pharma giants like Eli Lilly and Novartis: excelling at identifying undervalued assets and systematically amplifying their value by leveraging in-house R&D, manufacturing, and commercial capabilities. However, early successes also bore distinct marks of their era. Subsidiary Zhengda Tianqing rapidly captured market share with the first domestic generic version of the hepatitis B drug Entecavir, earning a reputation as the "King of First-to-Market Generics." A true inflection point arrived in 2015. That year saw the密集落地 of national healthcare reform policies, quietly shifting the industry's fundamental logic. It was also the year 23-year-old Xie Qirun assumed the role of Chairperson of the Board. The fourth-generation successor, born in 1992, is an alumnus of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in healthcare and finance, and joined the family business after graduation. Upon taking office, she did not overtly dismantle the old system but quietly pivoted the strategic focus towards a more challenging yet promising direction: innovative drugs. Her strategic acumen first became apparent in 2024, when Sino Biopharmaceutical gained control of STAR Market-listed firm Hotgen Biotech through a "share transfer + tender offer," setting a precedent as the first successful acquisition of an A-share listed company by a Hong Kong-listed entity. Within six months, Hotgen's market value soared from approximately RMB 2 billion to over RMB 8 billion. Xie Qirun's strategic prowess lies in her timing. Merely a month after the Hotgen acquisition, Sino Biopharmaceutical partnered with Linxen Pharmaceuticals—first through pipeline collaboration and participation in a Series C round, then accelerating to a full acquisition announced just about two months after initiation. The total consideration of approximately RMB 6.822 billion一度创下 one of the largest M&A records in China's innovative drug sector for 2025. A less noticed detail is that the acquisition process for Hejiya Biotech quietly commenced almost simultaneously with the closing of the Linxen deal. While appearing independent, these two transactions share a common origin—exhibiting highly consistent rhythm from identification and contact to decision-making, as if running on a pre-laid track. From Xie Qirun's perspective, viewed on a longer timeline, the acquisitions of Linxen and Hejiya point towards Sino Biopharmaceutical's R&D map for the next decade—a strategic bet on two global trillion-dollar markets: oncology and major chronic diseases. Thus, Xie Qirun's M&A approach becomes increasingly clear: accurate judgment followed by swift execution. Yet this is not impulsive aggression but a highly disciplined execution of strategy. When previously asked about the repeated success of her acquisitions, she offered a straightforward explanation: "Every cooperation and transaction is a prudent move under a long-term strategy." The watershed for M&A success lies not in the deal itself, but in the ability to achieve deep synergy, resource integration, and continuous empowerment. Without this承接能力, even the most cutting-edge pipeline remains merely a paper asset. A decade ago, Sino Biopharmaceutical had only 2 innovative products; today, that number has grown to 21. The revenue contribution from innovative drugs has climbed from 10% to a projected 50% in 2025. This marks not just a financial inflection point but signifies the company's successful transition across the critical threshold from generics to innovation. The next deal may already be in the pipeline. Xie Qirun has indicated that future M&A and business development will continue to focus on the two major directions of oncology and chronic diseases, targeting large markets, broad therapeutic areas, and major indications, "because only such opportunities can lead to a qualitative leap in performance." For the century-old CP Group, a new chapter in pharmaceuticals is being written. This time, the pen is in her hand. The course of Chinese pharmaceuticals is now setting sail towards a great navigational age. History never repeats itself exactly, but it often rhymes. Looking back to 2009, when Roche completed the full acquisition of Genentech for $47 billion, few realized it marked a turning point in global pharmaceutical history: a traditional pharma giant achieving strategic transformation by swallowing a biotech firm, a move still admired today. In the following decade, almost all top global pharmaceutical companies consistently employed M&A as a core growth engine. Merck's Keytruda originated from the Schering-Plough acquisition; Bristol Myers Squibb's $74 billion purchase of Celgene propelled it to the forefront of oncology; even Eli Lilly, renowned for its "iron army" of internal R&D, intensified its M&A activities over the past five years to bolster key areas like metabolic weight loss and neuroscience through acquisitions. M&A became a survival rule for multinational corporations. In other words, a large pharma's moat is not just dug from its own wells but also channeled from acquired streams. Now, this path is being replicated in China—only the protagonists have changed. Sino Biopharmaceutical's prior acquisition of Linxen Pharmaceuticals was a rare instance of a Chinese pharma giant wholly acquiring a purely innovative biotech, leading some industry observers to deem it the "Chinese version of Roche's acquisition of Genentech." The current acquisition of Hejiya reveals an even clearer intent: to preemptively secure core technologies for next-generation drugs through M&A. However, acquiring an innovative biotech is no less complex than developing a new drug: valuation negotiation is just the beginning; subsequent alignment of R&D pathways, talent incentive mechanisms, and cultural integration each pose risks that could nullify the transaction's value. "Many companies hesitate to pursue full acquisitions because they fear they cannot manage the integration effectively," a former BD head from a multinational pharma company once admitted. Precisely because of these challenges, most Chinese pharmaceutical companies remain at the stage of equity investments or collaborative development. But Xie Qirun's choice is different. She judges that the timing for M&A of Chinese biotechs has fully matured. Substantial data supports this view: in 2025, the total value of Chinese innovative drug out-licensing BD deals exceeded $130 billion; the number of clinical trials in China surpassed that in the US for two consecutive years; and the proportion of First-in-Class (FIC) drugs continues to rise. It is foreseeable that in the coming years, as blockbuster drugs with combined sales of approximately $180 billion face patent expiration, the global scramble for innovative sources will intensify. Chinese pharmaceutical companies, equipped with clinical resources, manufacturing capabilities, and the ability to integrate domestic innovation ecosystems, now genuinely possess the conditions to participate systematically in global competition. "2026 is the first year of our new ten-year strategy, and the core focus is globalization," Xie Qirun has shared internally. Chinese pharma companies must venture into overseas markets, provide innovative therapies to more patients worldwide, and unleash their true potential on a global scale. The great navigational age has always belonged to those daring enough to sail into deep waters. Sino Biopharmaceutical has now set sail.
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