Chinese biotech giant WuXi AppTec sees first-half earnings surge amid US scrutiny
Strong orders for weight-loss and diabetes treatments drive firm’s growth, despite being caught up in US efforts to curb China’s ambitions
WuXi AppTec, Asia’s largest provider of contract pharmaceutical research, posted net income that smashed market expectations in the first half of the year amid strong demand tied to weight-loss and diabetes drugs, as well as gains in its US business.
Interim net profit attributable to the owners of the Shanghai-based drug contractor advanced 33.7 per cent to 11.08 billion yuan (US$1.64 billion) from a year earlier, surpassing a Bloomberg mean consensus estimate – drawn from a pool of 25 analysts covering the stock – of a 14.5 per cent increase.
The company’s new order intake grew by more than 40 per cent, year on year, in the first half, its chief financial officer, Florence Shi, said during an earnings call on Tuesday.
WuXi AppTec is currently building manufacturing capacity for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in Singapore and is mulling multiple overseas sites for potential API expansion.
The company has also raised its total revenue target for 2026 to between 58.5 billion yuan and 60.5 billion yuan. Earlier this year, it had forecast full-year revenue of between 51.3 billion yuan and 53 billion yuan, with continuing operations expected to expand 18 to 22 per cent, year on year.
Driven by strong commercial momentum across various client drug programmes, “we delivered strong growth across revenue, profit and cash flow” in the first half of 2026, said Li Ge, chairman and CEO of WuXi AppTec, in a statement on Monday.
The company’s Hong Kong-traded shares edged up 1.37 per cent to HK$162.90 on Monday. The stock has jumped about 62 per cent, year to date. Hong Kong’s stock benchmark, the Hang Seng Index, rose 0.48 per cent on Monday.