(Yicai) April 18 -- Shares of Hengrui Pharmaceuticals fell despite the Chinese drugmaker's net profit growing last year for the first time in three years thanks to more revenue from innovative drugs.

Hengrui [SHA: 600276] closed down 4.6 percent at CNY42.35 (USD5.85) a share in Shanghai today.

Net profit jumped 10.1 percent to CNY4.3 billion (USD594 million) in the 12 months ended Dec. 31 from a year earlier, the Jiangsu province-based company said in an annual financial report released yesterday. Revenue rose 7.3 percent to CNY22.8 billion (USD3.2 billion).

Revenue from innovative drugs surged 22 percent to a record CNY10.6 billion. Hengrui’s five innovative drug authorization tie-ups with overseas partners had a trade value of as much as USD4 billion.

Hengrui is developing the retail market to expand innovative drugs' sales channels, it noted.

For the first quarter of this year, Hengrui’s net profit jumped 10.5 percent to CNY1.4 billion. Revenue rose 9.2 percent to CNY6 billion.

Editor: Martin Kadiev