Mengke Pharmaceuticals (688373), which was listed in 2022, has a profitability problem to be solved. According to the 2024 performance report recently disclosed by Mengke Pharmaceutical, the company will continue to lose money in 2024.

According to Mengke Pharmaceutical's 2024 performance report, the company's operating income in 2024 will be about 130 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.51%. Mengke Pharmaceutical said that during the reporting period, due to the increase in the number of hospitals covered and the increase in the number of prescriptions admitted to hospitals, the main business income achieved steady growth.

However, the net profit loss of Mengke Pharmaceutical has further increased. According to the performance report, the company's attributable net profit in 2024 will be about -441 million yuan, compared with -421 million yuan in the same period last year, a year-on-year increase and loss. This also means that since its listing, Mengke Pharmaceutical's net profit loss has gradually intensified. Financial data show that in 2022, the attributable net profit of Mengke Pharmaceutical will be -220 million yuan.

The increase in expenses was the main factor in the company's performance loss. Mengke Pharmaceutical said that with the continuous advancement of the clinical progress of the company's research projects, the investment in R&D expenses continues to increase. With the active development of the company's sales business, sales expenses have risen.

In fact, since its listing, Mengke Pharmaceutical's R&D expenses and sales expenses have been increasing. Financial data show that from 2022 to 2023, Mengke Pharmaceutical's R&D expenses will be 150 million yuan and 345 million yuan respectively; The sales expenses were 83 million yuan and 107 million yuan respectively. In the first three quarters of 2024, Mengke Pharmaceutical's R&D expenses and sales expenses were 244 million yuan and 82 million yuan, respectively.    

It is worth mentioning that the performance report shows that the net assets of Mengke Pharmaceutical will shrink significantly in 2024. At the beginning of the reporting period, the attributable net assets of Mengke Pharmaceutical were 834 million yuan, and at the end of the reporting period, it was 439 million yuan. Among them, the company's total assets declined significantly, from 1.169 billion yuan at the beginning of the reporting period to 849 million yuan at the end of the reporting period.

According to the third quarter report of Mengke Pharmaceutical, as of the end of the third quarter of 2024, the decline in the company's total assets was mainly due to the decrease in trading financial assets, from 787 million yuan at the end of 2023 to 486 million yuan at the end of the third quarter of 2024.

Mengke Pharmaceutical said that in 2024, in order to support the development of the company's various operating businesses, the idle funds used to purchase trading financial assets will decrease, resulting in a decrease in fair value change profit and loss.

It is understood that Mengke Pharmaceutical currently has only one product commercialized. In 2021, the company's core product contezolid was successfully launched, mainly for the treatment of multidrug-resistant gram-positive bacterial infections, and as of June 30, 2024, contezolid tablets have successfully entered 533 hospitals across the country and achieved formal access and bulk clinical procurement in 143 hospitals.

In the eyes of industry insiders, at present, it may be difficult to support the company to achieve a turnaround with only one product, and the company also needs to vigorously develop new products. At the beginning of this year, Mengke Pharmaceutical announced that it had recently received the "Drug Clinical Trial Approval Notice" issued by the State Drug Administration on the use of MRX-5 tablets for the treatment of infections caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria sensitive to this product.

The data show that MRX-5 is a novel benzborazole antibiotic intended for the treatment of infections of the genus Mycobacteria, specifically caused by NTM. MRX-5 has completed a Phase I clinical trial in Australia and is meeting its intended targets.

Mengke Pharmaceuticals said that the company is steadily advancing a number of projects in the clinical research and development stage. At the end of November last year, the company's phase III clinical trial of MRX-4 for injection was successfully completed and reached the primary efficacy endpoint, and is expected to be approved for marketing and commercialization in China first. According to the company's previous disclosure, MRX-8 has completed the phase I clinical trial and is a polymyxin drug for injection, focusing on combating multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacterial infections; In addition, the company also has a number of potential drugs in reserve, including MRX-17 for nephritis treatment, MRX-23 for tumor treatment, and MRX-15 for kidney cancer, which further strengthens the company's R&D layout in different therapeutic areas.

Zhang Xinyuan, head of research at Kefangde Think Tank, said that for innovative pharmaceutical companies, there needs to be sufficient funds and resources for R&D, clinical trials, approval, marketing and other links; A strict quality control system and regulatory compliance system are required to ensure the quality and safety of innovative drugs, as well as to meet regulatory requirements; In addition, it is also necessary to have an appropriate business strategy and marketing plan to find the right positioning and pricing strategy in the market, and adopt the right marketing strategy to increase market share and drug awareness.