(Yicai Global) Aug. 30 -- Walvax Biotechnology’s shares surged after the Chinese drug developer’s first-half profit quadrupled and it unveiled plans to co-develop two messenger ribonucleic acid vaccines and build a new industrial production workshop for a Covid-19 jab that is in clinical trials.

Walvax’s stock price [SHE:300142] closed 7 percent higher today at CNY87.31 (USD13.50), valuing the Yunnan province-based company at about CNY127.8 billion (USD19.75 billion).

Net profit was CNY240 million (USD37 million) in the six months ended June 30, after deducting non-recurring gains and losses, according to the firm’s earnings report published on Aug. 27. Revenue rose 135 percent to CNY1.4 billion (USD216.5 million) thanks to strong sales of new vaccines.

Walvax also announced on the same day that it will work with Shanghai RNACure Biopharma on developing and commercializing mRNA vaccines against influenza and respiratory syncytial virus.

Walvax will spend CNY1 million (USD154,601) on each project initially, and will also be responsible for funding the research, development, and clinical trials management of target drugs as well as industrialization and global sales after they are approved.

The two firms will share an agreed proportion of the global sales revenue, but Walvax will be the only holder of the approval for registration and marketing. 

Drugs using mRNA technology are seen as cutting-edge, and mRNA-based vaccines have only been approved in a few countries, with none on sale in China, according to Walvax. 

Its subsidiary, Shanghai Zerun Biotech, also plans to set up a unit called Beijing Zerun Innovative Biotechnology through which it will invest CNY520 million (USD80.4 million) to build an industrial workshop for a recombinant novel coronavirus vaccine that is undergoing Phase II clinical trials.

The workshop will have an annual output of 200 million doses of vaccines, and is expected to be up and running in 2022, Walvax said. 

Editor: Tom Litting