Expanded Hospital Network
Healthy Sales of the Company’s Core Products
1H 2023’s Operating Revenue Surged 90% to RMB104 million
Ocumension Therapeutics (Ocumension or the Company, together with its subsidiaries, collectively the Group, HKG: 1477), a leading China ophthalmic pharmaceutical platform company, announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2023 (the Period) today.
During the Period, the market of ophthalmic drugs has significantly recovered from COVID-19. The Company has seized such an opportunity and made great progress in market exploration and customer development. The Company achieved operating revenue of RMB103.7 million, representing an increase of 90.1% year-on-year. Consolidated gross profit margin was approximately 60.5%, in line with the growth in revenue. The increase in revenue is mainly attributed to the sales of more than ten products including Youshiying, Ou Qin, Emadine, Xalatan, Kangwenjuan. In addition, the adjusted loss amounted to RMB125.9 million, which increased by 63.8% year-on-year.
The Group expanded its network of hospitals in the PRC for its ophthalmic drugs, achieving coverage of 9,361 hospitals nationwide, 1,426 of which are Grade III hospitals, with a commercial team of 210 employees.
During the Period, OcuMension maintained its focus on the pilot scale production and validation batch production for its products, such as Emadine, at its Suzhou manufacture site. It also continued to produce products that were transferred from other manufacture sites, such as Ou Qin.
The Company officially commercially launched Youshiying (Fluocinolone intravitreal implant) during the Period, a new drug for the treatment of chronic non-infectious uveitis. Uveitis is a complex eye disease, including but not limited to iritis and iridocyclitis, choroiditis, peripheral inflammation and degeneration of the retina and vascular, retinal pigment epithelium, vitreous body and optic nerve. The disease can cause significant effects on patients. Specifically, each episode of inflammation of uveitis may cause irreversible damage to the patients’ intraocular tissues, among which an average number of 46% of patients will eventually develop irreversible visual impairment or blindness. Uveitis is the second most common eye disease in China that causes blindness.
The Group continued to pursue new opportunities in the ophthalmic market and accelerate its R&D of new clinical drugs. One of the Company’s innovative drugs, OT-1001 (0.24% cetirizine hydrochloride eye drop), had its NDA accepted by the CDE and was included in the NMPA’s priority review and approval process. Additionally, OcuMension completed the enrollment of patients globally for the phase III clinical trial of OT-101 (0.01% atropine sulfate eye drop), a new drug for slowing down the progression of myopia in children. The application for the phase III clinical trial of OT-101-S (0.01% and 0.05% atropine sulfate eye drops) was also accepted by CDE. OT-101-S is shown to be safe and well-tolerated. With five drug candidates in phase III clinical trials, OcuMension has the largest number of ophthalmic drugs in phase III clinical trials in China. OcuMension will continue strengthening its research and development efforts to overcome technical barriers to ophthalmic preparations and continuously improve its product’s competitiveness.
In February 2023, OT-101, a low-concentration (0.01%) atropine eye drop for retarding or slowing down the progression of myopia in children and adolescents, completed the enrollment of 170 subjects in China for global phase III randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel and multi-center clinical trial. In June 2023, OT-101 completed the enrollment of 678 subjects for the global phase III randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group and multi-center clinical trial. The Company will continue its phase III clinical trials this year.
In addition, the Company initiated the phase II clinical trial for OT-202 (tyrosine kinase inhibitor) in February, a class I innovative drug internally developed by the Company for the treatment of dry eye. The phase I clinical trial was successfully completed in February and demonstrated OT-202 has good safety and tolerability profile in healthy adult subjects. The Company expects to complete the enrollment of subjects for phase II clinical trials in the second half of 2023.
In March, OT-702, a recombinant human vascular endothelial growth factor receptor antibody fusion protein ophthalmic injection, completed the enrollment of all subjects for the phase III clinical trial. The Company will continue phase III clinical trials this year. The Company also continued to advance the real-world study and phase III clinical trials of OT-502 during the Period. The Company expects to organize its data and prepare NDA documents in the second half of this year.
Looking forward to the second half of 2023, the Company will continue developing new products to ensure that at least two new drug candidates enter the registration stage and that it is able to maintain a solid pipeline of products to launch. The Company also expects that the Suzhou manufacturing site will achieve commercialized mass production and be able to provide a consistent supply of quality of products. Lastly, OcuMension will dedicate significant resources to promote its core product, Youshiying, to ensure its successful marketing, and ability to benefit a large number of patients.
OcuMension also plans to enhance its efforts to market and promote other drug products, including Xalatan, Xalacom, Betoptic S, Emadine and AZEP, as it strengthens its leading position in the treatment of uveitis, anti-allergy and glaucoma as well as maintain its sales revenue’s exponential growth. Meanwhile, the Company will enhance its corporate culture by creating a unique culture to safeguard the sustainable development and growth in the next stage.
Mr. Ye LIU, CEO and Executive Director of Ocumension, said: “Over the past three years, we have made many remarkable achievements. In particular, we successfully developed and marketed our core product OT-401, broadened our product pipeline, built a high-quality production base and actively promoted our products. Going forward, as we uphold our philosophy of “Virtus et Lumen”, we will provide comprehensive solutions to patients to protect their eyes and further improve their quality of life. We will also continue to deliver strong results and value for our shareholders and investors, as we strengthen our leading position in the ophthalmology industry.”
About Ocumension Therapeutics
Ocumension Therapeutics is a Chinese ophthalmology platform company dedicated to identifying, developing and commercializing pioneering or best-in-class ophthalmic therapies. The company’s vision is to provide world-class drug solutions to meet the huge demand for ophthalmology treatments in China. We believe that our ophthalmology platform with its obvious first-mover advantage will give us a leading position in the ophthalmology industry in China. Up to now, the company has 24 kinds of drug assets in front of the eye and back of the eye, and has established a complete ophthalmic drug product line, six of which have entered phase III clinical trials in China. On July 10, 2020, Ocumension was listed on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (stock code: 01477).
More information about Ocumension Therapeutics: https://www.ocumension.com/