Open the Sina Finance app and search for [Disclosure] to view more rating levels. From October 20-22 along the banks of Shanghai's Huangpu River, the 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference returns. Nobel and Turing Award winners will speak on-site about the future and trends of technology, and internet-famous professors who "rescue" people from anxiety and the era of involution—Macfarlane and Xiang Biao—will hold a live dialogue! Limited seats, first come first served. Let us join together for the sustainable appointment! [Click to register] By Sina Finance Shanghai Bureau, Shi Ju. Two years after withdrawing its STAR Market listing application, Novast Laboratories, Limited (301569) switched to a different track and finally knocked on the door of the A-share market. On October 15, Nantong Novast Laboratories, Limited landed on the ChiNext board with an issue price of 7 yuan. After the opening, the company's stock price quickly surged, reaching an intraday high of 42.15 yuan, triggering a temporary trading halt due to a gain exceeding 400%; by the close, it reported 35.12 yuan, up 401.71% from the issue price. A company went from voluntarily withdrawing its IPO to becoming the most watched new stock of the day in just two years. Beyond the stock price frenzy, several questions need to be reopened: Why was the previous IPO terminated? After this "exchange switch" listing, what changes have occurred in the company's overseas structure, customer dependence, and governance structure? More realistically, founder Zhang Guohua, born in 1949, still simultaneously serves as chairman and general manager, while his son Zhang Shuqiang holds the roles of deputy general manager, financial officer, and board secretary. For this multinational pharmaceutical company that is highly dependent on its founder, how will succession and checks and balances be arranged after listing?
After withdrawing from the STAR Market, it pivoted to the ChiNext board. Novast Laboratories' path to listing was not smooth sailing. In 2022, the company submitted a STAR Market listing application to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. On September 27, 2024, because Novast Laboratories and its sponsor withdrew the application, the Shanghai Stock Exchange terminated the review. Public documents did not disclose the specific reasons for the withdrawal, so the previous termination cannot simply be attributed to a particular financial or compliance issue. Half a year later, Novast Laboratories turned to the ChiNext board. In March 2025, the company re-filed for its IPO; it passed the review meeting in July 2026 and officially listed on October 15. Compared with the previous filing, the listing board changed from the STAR Market, which emphasizes "hard technology" attributes, to the ChiNext board, which focuses more on growth potential, and the company's narrative focus is also more concentrated on the industrialization of complex formulations, its accumulation in the U.S. market, and continuously growing operating performance.
Financial data provided part of the support. From 2023 to 2025, Novast Laboratories' operating revenue was 700 million yuan, 866 million yuan, and 895 million yuan, respectively; net profit was 116 million yuan, 260 million yuan, and 228 million yuan, respectively. In 2025, although the company continued to increase revenue, net profit fell by approximately 12.43% year on year. In the first half of 2026, the company achieved revenue of 492 million yuan and net profit of 141 million yuan, up 11.59% and 36.80% year on year, respectively. However, a "successful board switch" does not mean the previous market doubts have naturally disappeared. The company currently still achieves control through the overseas entity Lianya Cayman and five domestic employee shareholding platforms, and all three actual controllers are U.S. citizens; overseas sales remain an important source of revenue, with the main market concentrated in the United States. These structures are not inherently problematic, but they mean that Novast Laboratories needs to face more complex risks related to exchange rates, drug pricing, FDA regulation, and cross-border governance. After this listing, what the market truly needs to see is not only that the filing materials are more complete, but also how the company explains the substantive changes between the two filings.
Behind 48 FDA approvals, a small number of core products. Novast Laboratories' high-valuation story is built on "high-end generic drugs going overseas." As of the end of March 2026, the company had 48 self-developed products approved by the U.S. FDA, and another product approved in Canada. Among them, 4 products and 5 specifications were designated by the FDA as reference standard formulations. Such an approval reserve is uncommon among domestic generic drug companies. But the number of approvals does not mean profit sources are sufficiently diversified. The prospectus shows that some of the company's overseas core products have high profitability. Among them, the global first generic product conjugated estrogens extended-release tablets achieved an overseas gross margin of 94.91% in 2025, and products such as metoprolol succinate extended-release tablets and nifedipine extended-release tablets also had gross margins exceeding 50%. A single-product gross margin close to 95% supports an extremely imaginative capital story for the company, while also further amplifying the risks of product competition, customer stability, and changes in U.S. drug prices.
Some of the company's products adopt a settlement model in which export revenue, profit sharing, and exclusive distribution rights income coexist. Public materials show that the profit sharing for certain products has even been negative. This means that the final revenue recognized by Novast Laboratories may be affected by factors such as returns, price adjustments, channel deductions, and terminal sales settlement. Whether high gross margins can be stably converted into cash profits requires a more detailed explanation than "how many FDA approvals have been obtained." The company also needs to answer another question: among the 48 approved products, how many are already selling steadily, and how many are still at the stage of having obtained approval but not yet forming scale revenue? If profits are mainly contributed by a small number of products and customers, the so-called risk resistance of the product matrix still needs to be tested.
A 77-year-old founder and a son holding four roles. The story of Novast Laboratories has long revolved around Zhang Guohua. Zhang Guohua was born in 1949 and is from Nantong. After the resumption of the college entrance examination, he entered Nanjing Pharmaceutical College, then went to the United States to obtain a doctorate in pharmaceutics, and once engaged in R&D and management work at overseas pharmaceutical companies. In 2005, he led a team composed of professionals from China, the United States, Canada, and India back to Nantong to start a business, bringing the U.S. generic drug development, filing, and production system into a Chinese factory. Twenty-one years later, Zhang Guohua finally brought the company to the ChiNext board. But under the governance framework of a listed company, he still simultaneously serves as chairman and general manager, controlling the board of directors and directly presiding over daily operations. The company currently has three actual controllers, namely Zhang Guohua, PINNAMARAJU PRASADRAJU, and Zhang Shuqiang. Through Lianya Cayman and five employee shareholding platforms, the three collectively indirectly control 29.4999% of the company's shares and have signed a concerted action agreement. If the three parties cannot reach a consensus on major matters, Zhang Guohua's opinion shall prevail. Zhang Guohua's son, Zhang Shuqiang, was born in 1978 and currently serves as director, deputy general manager, financial officer, and board secretary. A senior executive simultaneously spans the three key chains of operations, finance, and information disclosure. This arrangement helps improve decision-making efficiency, but also makes internal checks and balances after listing an issue that outsiders cannot avoid.
Novast Laboratories has completed its identity leap from an overseas technical team and a Nantong pharmaceutical company to an A-share listed company. The stock price on October 15 gave it an enthusiastic valuation, but listing is only the end point of review and the starting point of public supervision. The reasons for the withdrawal two years ago were not disclosed in detail, and today's surge cannot replace answers about governance structure, customer concentration, and profit quality. For 77-year-old Zhang Guohua, bringing the company to listing is the arrival of a long run; for Novast Laboratories, the real new race has only just begun.
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