(Yicai Global) July 30 -- Shares of Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise surged to a record high today, adding to a more than 2,000 percent rally since the maker of Covid-19 testing kits landed on Shanghai’s stock market in April.

The shares [SHA: 603392] rose by the exchange-imposed daily maximum of 10 percent to CNY243.10 (USD34.72) apiece after Wantai Biological announced that it has sold its new rotavirus vaccine development and production rights to a firm under French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi for USD68 million.

Wantai Biological’s stock price is now 2,678 percent above its initial public offering price of CNY8.75 (USD1.25) a share on April 29, giving it a market capitalization of CNY95.8 billion (USD13.7 million).

Founded in 1991, the Beijing-based company is“one of the leading manufacturers of infectious disease diagnostics and a global leader in Hepatitis E diagnostics,” according to its website, and had shipped more than 7 million Covid-19 diagnostics kits as of July 17.

Under the deal with Sanofi, its Xiamen Innovax Biotech unit will provide Sanofi Pasteur with the license which encompasses patents, exclusive technologies and materials to advance commercialization of the vaccine against the diarrheal disease which can prove lethal to children.

Innovax will receive a CNY68 million license fee for the deal and a commission of 1 percent or 2 percent of net sales of the commercialized shot based on its type. Of the license fee, Innovax will be paid USD10 million in advance and the remaining USD58 million in milestone payments according to the progress of clinical testing and commercial sales, the announcement said.

The inoculant was developed by an engineering technology center that Innovax and Xiamen University jointly built, and so 15 percent of the license fee and commission will go to Xiamen University and 85 percent to Innovax, Wantai Biological said.

Rotavirus is one of the main pathogens that cause diarrhea in children. About 900,000 children die from rotavirus each year, most of them in developing countries. One of the major vaccines worldwide, the best-selling ones include Merck Sharp & Dohme’s Rotateq and GlaxoSmithKline's Rotarix.

Editor: Ben Armour