Chinese biotech stock’s 4,500% surge sparks fear of market froth
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The company with only 121 employees and no products, no revenue has overtaken industry heavyweights in just over 80 days.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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HONG KONG - A Chinese biotechnology company has skyrocketed more than 4,500 per cent in the three months since its Hong Kong debut, stoking worries of speculative buying.
Shares of TransThera Sciences soared as much as 64 per cent to HK$679.50 in Hong Kong trading on Sept 16, after pricing at just HK$13.15 in late June. The more than fiftyfold gain has made it the top performer on the Hang Seng Healthcare Index in 2025.
TransThera noted the “unusual movements” in its share price in an announcement on Sept 16, while confirming “business operation remains normal”.
The blistering rally highlights investor appetite for China’s biotech push amid a red-hot Hong Kong equity market, but it also heightens concerns about lofty valuations in a sector still fraught with drug development risks.
In the company’s latest interim report, TransThera posted zero revenue for the period ended June 30.
The rally of “4,000 per cent in three months is definitely crazy”, said Mr Haris Khurshid, chief investment officer at Chicago-based Karobaar Capital. “But it says more about sentiment than fundamentals.”
The rally also drew widespread attention in the local media.
Trade publication Pharmaceutical Finance on Sept 16 wrote that “a company with only 121 employees and no products, no revenue, no profits” has overtaken industry heavyweights in just over 80 days. Financial news outlet Cailian noted that TransThera has yet to commercialise any products on the market, with its drugs still in clinical testing.
The biotech company now surpasses the market value of pharmaceutical giants like Akeso and Innovent Biologics, and is now closing in on BeOne Medicines, a Chinese biotech trailblazer dual-listed in the US and Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong’s biotech sector has been starved for a big win, and traders are clearly chasing anything that looks like the next breakthrough,” said Mr Khurshid.
“These kinds of rallies can reverse just as violently.” BLOOMBERG
