Viva Biotech Announces Its 2026 Interim Results: AI Sparks New Paradigm in Drug R&D, CDMO Commercial Manufacturing Accelerates Revenue Growth
Results Highlights for Interim Results ended 30 June 2026
Revenue reached RMB1,006.5 million, increasing by 21.0% YoY
Gross profit amounted to RMB341.7 million, increasing by 0.7% YoY
Gross profit margin was 34.0%
HONG KONG, Aug. 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- On August 26, 2026, Viva Biotech Holdings Group ("the Group" or "the Company", stock code: 1873.HK) announced that the Group's revenue amounted to RMB1,006.5 million and gross profit of RMB341.7 million, representing a gross margin of 34.0%. Overall, the Group's total revenue grew by approximately 21.0% year-on-year, primarily driven by the significant contribution from Langhua Pharmaceutical's CDMO business, under which one peptide project has entered the commercial production phase and the other small-molecule project has reached the PPQ phase. In addition, in the first half of 2026, the Group recorded a net profit of RMB100.9 million and an adjusted non-IFRS net profit of RMB128.3 million, both representing a decline compared with the corresponding period of last year. This was mainly attributable to a decrease in investment income contributions during the Reporting Period, unfavorable foreign exchange movements and increased R&D expenses associated with new business development.
CRO Revenue Growth Set for Recovery, with AI-Driven Drug R&D Leading a New Paradigm in Drug Discovery
In the first half of 2026, the Group's CRO revenue amounted to RMB405.1 million; adjusted gross profit for the corresponding period reached RMB173.7 million. Backed by a strong order backlog and the ongoing expansion of AI and other new technology platforms, the Company is expected to maintain a full-year growth rate in 2026 at or above its current level.
The Group's cumulative number of CRO clients increased to 1,984, including the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies, with the top 10 clients accounting for 26.6% of CRO revenue.
As of June 30, 2026, the Company had cumulatively delivered over 108,163 protein structures to clients, of which approximately 9,278 were newly delivered in the first half of 2026. Cumulatively, over 2,557 independent drug targets have been studied, with 212 newly delivered in the first half of 2026. The number of delivered independent drug targets grew markedly, driven by the rapid advancement of AI-powered drug discovery and the resulting surge in wet-lab demand. The Company continues to lead the industry globally in protein structure determination. New modality offerings, including peptides, antibodies, XDCs, and PROTACs/molecular glues, accounted for approximately 17.7% of total CRO revenue, representing a year-on-year increase of nearly 10.7%.
As of June 30, 2026, CADD/AIDD had cumulatively participated in 228 projects, with 92 cumulative clients having procured CADD/AIDD services. Revenue contribution from AI-empowered projects accounted for approximately 14.0% of total CRO revenue. A deep collaboration with a global industry leader advanced our AI-driven "dry-wet closed-loop" model, laying a foundation for future MNC partnerships. The CADD/AIDD team launched the MARS multimodal integrated algorithm platform, leveraging Pep2MARS to establish a strong competitive advantage in designing peptides, cyclic peptides, and complex macrocycles. Through the comprehensive upgrade of its three underlying modules, V-Scepter, V-Orb, and V-Mantle, the platform will significantly boost drug design efficiency and accelerate practical applications.
CDMO Commercial Manufacturing Fuels Revenue Growth; CMC Segment Successfully Achieves Profitability
During the Reporting Period, two new CDMO commercialization projects were successfully landed. Through structural adjustment and optimization of its client portfolio, the CMC business has continuously improved project delivery rates, and has successfully achieved a turnaround from loss to profitability.
For the first half of 2026, Langhua Pharmaceutical recorded total revenue of RMB601.4 million, representing a year-on-year increase of approximately 47.0%. Adjusted gross profit totaled RMB175.1 million, up approximately 12.9% year-on-year. The revenue growth was primarily driven by two new CDMO commercialization projects. A peptide project has entered the commercial stockpiling stage, and a small-molecule project is currently at the PPQ production stage. Meanwhile, the API and the intermediates and formulations business are expected to gradually recover in the second half of the year. As of June 30, 2026, Langhua Pharmaceutical had served a cumulative total of 920 clients, with a 100.0% retention rate among its top ten customers. The current total production capacity stands at 860 cubic meters, which is sufficient to support the actual commercial production of new commercialized products over the next two years. In addition, an additional 400 cubic meters of capacity is being constructed to cater to the future volume growth of new molecule commercial production.
In 2025, the Group established a new PPO (Peptides, Proteins and Oligo Nucleotides) business unit. It is also one of the Group's key strategic focuses for future development. The unit has already completed peptide CMC-related capabilities and team assembly. During the Reporting Period, the unit delivered 21 peptide projects accumulatively, with 19 projects currently in progress. Going forward, the PPO business unit will continue to strengthen its technological capabilities in peptides, conjugated drugs, and small nucleic acids.
Exit Proceeds to Be Deployed Towards Incubation of New Projects
During the Reporting Period, the Group realized aggregate cash proceeds of approximately RMB218.4 million from successful exits of several incubation portfolio companies over the past year and in the first half of this year. The Company plans to deploy a portion of such proceeds towards incubating new projects, leveraging its existing AI+SBDD dry-wet experimental platform. As of June 30, 2026, the Group had invested in and incubated a cumulative total of 93 start-up companies, with a cumulative total of nearly 232 pipelines under development, of which 188 are in the preclinical stage and 44 have advanced into the clinical stage. To date, the Group has achieved full or partial exits from 19 incubated companies.
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