Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co.,Ltd. has reported its worst financial performance since listing, following its initial success with the domestically produced bivalent HPV vaccine Cecolin. According to annual report data, the company achieved annual operating revenue of 1.819 billion yuan, a decrease of 18.99% year-on-year. Net profit attributable to shareholders was -398 million yuan, a sharp decline of 474.89% compared to the previous year, marking the first annual net loss in the company's history. After deducting non-recurring gains and losses, the net loss further widened to 623 million yuan, while the weighted average return on equity fell to -3.30%.
Quarterly operating data indicate that the company's losses intensified progressively throughout the year, with no clear signs of operational stabilization. The company reported a loss of 52.7769 million yuan in the first quarter, which expanded to 91.4354 million yuan in the second quarter. Although the loss narrowed temporarily to 28.7909 million yuan in the third quarter, it surged to 225 million yuan in the fourth quarter alone, exceeding the total losses of the first three quarters. Concurrently, risks such as inventory accumulation, lower capital utilization, idle production capacity, and asset impairments have emerged, significantly dragging down current profits and posing potential burdens for future operations.
The primary reason for the substantial loss is the simultaneous decline in the company's two main business segments. The vaccine business, once a major profit driver, has completely lost momentum, while the in-vitro diagnostics business, which previously provided stability, has failed to cushion the impact. Under this dual pressure, the company has lost its fundamental earnings base.
Specifically, the vaccine business was once the absolute core of the company's performance. In 2022, the bivalent HPV vaccine Cecolin contributed over 8.5 billion yuan in revenue, accounting for more than 70% of total revenue, with gross margins consistently above 85%, serving as the key driver of rapid growth. However, since 2023, the vaccine business has declined sharply. Revenue plummeted to approximately 600 million yuan in 2024, and the downturn intensified in 2025. During the reporting period, vaccine business revenue was 457 million yuan, a decrease of 24.63% year-on-year, while the gross margin fell by over 43 percentage points.
The collapse of the vaccine business results from a combination of policy, market, and product factors. On the policy front, starting in 2023, many regions in China initiated centralized volume-based procurement for HPV vaccines, with bivalent HPV vaccines becoming a key target. The winning bid price for Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co.,Ltd.'s Cecolin dropped sharply from 329 yuan per dose to around 30 yuan, a reduction of over 90%. This steep price decline caused the gross margin for the bivalent vaccine to fall from over 90% at its peak to less than 30% in 2025, with profit per dose nearly eliminated.
Market-wise, dual competitive pressures have significantly reduced demand for the bivalent vaccine. On one hand, competing domestic bivalent HPV vaccines, such as those from Walvax Biotechnology, have entered the market at lower prices, further dividing the existing market and eroding Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co.,Ltd.'s price advantage. On the other hand, in 2023, the approved age range for the imported nonavalent HPV vaccine was expanded from 16-26 years to 9-45 years, covering the core target demographic of the bivalent vaccine. Consumers now prefer the nonavalent vaccine for its broader protection, leading to a sharp decline in demand for the bivalent vaccine.
The company's hope for a turnaround, Cecolin 9, China's first domestically developed nonavalent HPV vaccine, was approved for market launch in June 2025 but has performed far below expectations commercially. To quickly capture market share, Cecolin 9 was priced at only 499 yuan per dose, approximately 38% of the price of the imported Merck nonavalent vaccine. However, this low-price strategy did not lead to a surge in sales. The company's full-year vaccine business revenue fell below 500 million yuan, a record low, and the revenue gap left by the bivalent vaccine remains difficult to fill.
Meanwhile, the domestic nonavalent vaccine market has become highly crowded. Competitors such as康乐卫士 and 博唯生物 have their nonavalent vaccines in Phase III clinical trials and are expected to launch in 2026. In the future, Cecolin 9 will face intense competition from both domestic rivals and imported products, making market penetration challenging.
Beyond HPV vaccines, the company's traditional vaccines, such as those for chickenpox and shingles, generate less than 100 million yuan in revenue. Pipeline products like the 20-valent pneumococcal vaccine and the 11-valent HPV vaccine are still in early-stage clinical trials and are not expected to contribute revenue until after 2030. The vaccine business currently lacks new growth drivers, with no near-term recovery in sight.
The in-vitro diagnostics business, once a stabilizer for performance, also underperformed in 2025 and failed to offset losses from the vaccine segment. Revenue from this business was 1.308 billion yuan, down 18.65% year-on-year, while the gross margin fell by 7.98 percentage points to 56.99%, indicating declines in both revenue and profitability.
Amid the core business downturn, Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co.,Ltd. has also exposed multiple serious issues in asset management and financial operations. Risks such as cash flow pressure, inventory accumulation, high accounts receivable, and idle asset impairments have intensified, not only worsening the 2025 losses but also creating potential burdens for 2026 and beyond.
Inventory impairment has been a major factor eroding profits, as inventory pressure from vaccine products has not been fully alleviated. By the end of 2025, the company's inventory balance decreased by 30.97% to 21.6584 million doses, primarily due to the forced clearance of bivalent HPV vaccine stock and significant impairment provisions.
In 2025, asset impairment losses reached 215 million yuan, almost entirely from inventory and contract asset impairments, with the majority related to the bivalent HPV vaccine. These impairment losses accounted for 54% of the company's annual loss, playing a critical role in turning profit into loss.
The book value of inventory after provisions stood at 269 million yuan at the end of 2025. If the market promotion of the nonavalent HPV vaccine underperforms or the clearance of bivalent HPV vaccine inventory slows, the company faces ongoing risks of further asset impairments, which would further squeeze profit margins.
Regarding accounts receivable, the balance of accounts receivable and notes was 1.625 billion yuan at the end of 2025. From 2021 to 2025, the days sales outstanding (DSO) were 92.26 days, 99.7 days, 226.37 days, 403.36 days, and 361.92 days, respectively. Although DSO shortened slightly in 2025, it remains at a historically high level, indicating poor capital turnover efficiency.
In terms of fixed asset depreciation, the company invested 350 million yuan in new fixed assets in 2025 to expand production capacity for the nonavalent HPV vaccine and update diagnostic equipment. The fixed asset balance reached 2.87 billion yuan. However, with low capacity utilization in both vaccine and diagnostics operations, a significant portion of fixed assets remains idle. Depreciation expenses for fixed assets increased by 14.7% year-on-year to 263 million yuan.
Overall, the substantial loss in 2025 reflects the culmination of multiple issues, including the decline of core businesses, missteps in market response, and poor asset management. The past glory built on a single vaccine product has faded. Currently, challenges such as the commercialization of the nonavalent vaccine and inventory resolution remain unresolved, and it is yet to be seen whether the company can overcome its operational difficulties.
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