(Yicai) March 12 -- Shares of Sinqi Pharmaceuticals surged to a record high after the Chinese drugmaker said its atropine sulfate eye drop became the first drug to delay myopia progression in children to be approved in China.

Sinqi Pharmaceutical [SHE: 300573] was trading up 3.5 percent at CNY193.40 (USD26.95) as of 2.10 p.m. in Shenzhen today, after gaining nearly 13 percent yesterday.

The National Medical Products Administration has approved SQ-729 for marketing in China on March 5, the regulator announced yesterday. SQ-729 is also the first-ever drug of such kind to be approved after controlled clinical trials worldwide.

Shenyang-based Sinqi Pharma began the clinical trials of SQ-729 in 2020. Since then, the firm’s stock price has doubled, achieving a market capitalization of about CNY24 billion (USD3.3 billion).

Before, atropine sulfate eye drops did not have strict clinical trial data verification in the world, Zhai Jia, director of the School of Ophthalmology and Optometry of Wenzhou Medical University and the person in charge of the clinical research of SQ-729, told Yicai. SQ-729 is the first and only product approved after strict randomized controlled clinical trials and clinical data support globally, providing solutions for the prevention and control of myopia in children, he added.

Even though low-concentration atropine sulfate has been proven safe in clinical trials, it is not suitable for all children and should be used with a prescription under the guidance of medical institutions and doctors, Zhai noted.

The overall myopia rate in children and adolescents in China was nearly 54 percent in 2018, and the Chinese population over five years old affected with myopia has been increasing since then, according to a White Paper on Eye Health in China released by the National Health Commission.

Editor: Futura Costaglione