By Jason Chau


Shares of Chinese biopharma firm WuXi AppTec rallied after it guided for a significant increase in 2025's earnings.

WuXi AppTec's shares rose 9.7% in Hong Kong and 7.9% in Shanghai in early trade on Tuesday, before pulling back. Its H-shares were last up 7.9%, while A-shares were 5.8% higher.

The gains came after the firm filed a positive profit alert with the stock exchange on Monday. WuXi AppTec said it estimates 2025 net profit to have increased by over 102%, while revenue is expected to grow almost 16%.

The company said that earnings were likely boosted by improved capabilities and capacity, optimized production processes and rising operating efficiency.

WuXi AppTec is considered one of China's leading biopharma companies and is primarily a contract research, development and manufacturing organization, or CRDMO, integrating the entire drug development process from discovery to production.

While the drugmaker has come under U.S. scrutiny amid escalating U.S.-China geopolitical tensions, it saw a strong recovery in 2025, driven by a rebound in new service orders from global customers and ongoing business expansion, UOB Kay Hian analysts Carol Dou and Sunny Chen said in a note.

The drugmaker was named as a company of concern in a U.S. congressional bill in 2024, which would have restricted U.S. entities from working with it on federally funded government projects.

"With the potential for a further lowering of the cost of capital, we believe the CRDMO segment will embrace increasing service demand and brighter earnings prospects in 2026," they added.

"We think the company delivered a set of sound results for 4Q 2025 and believe the growth momentum will continue into 2026," Nomura analyst Jialin Zhang said in response to the profit alert.

Chinese healthcare firms have made notable strides in innovation in 2025, striking up a series of collaboration and licensing deals with global biopharma majors, such as Innovent's partnership with Japan's Takeda on cancer treatments.

The Hang Seng Biotech Index--a key industry benchmark--is up over 17% so far this year, outpacing the broader Hang Seng.


Write to Jason Chau at jason.chau@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-13-26 0011ET