Kelun-Biotech Successfully Listed on the Main Board of HKEX

Hong Kong, China, July 11, 2023 -- The parent company of KLUS Pharma, Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (“Kelun-Biotech”) today announced its official listing on the main board of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) under stock code: 6990.HK. Shares started trading at 60.60 Hong Kong dollars (“HKD”) in the morning. By midday close, the share price went up by 3.80%, with a total market value of HKD13.58 billion.

As the largest Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the medical and health sector of the Hong Kong stock market in the past two years and one of the most popular investment projects in the medical and health sector in recent times, Kelun-Biotech’s listing on HKEX has attracted much attention and great interest from both local and international investors.

As a global unicorn enterprise, Kelun-Biotech has established a strategic partnership with Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC (together with its affiliates, “MSD”), one of the top ten multinational pharmaceutical companies in the world, and has entered into three licensing collaborations with MSD to develop up to nine ADC assets with upfront and milestone payments totaling up to $11.8 billion. In addition, Kelun-Biotech has also received support from blue-chip healthcare investors such as IDG Capital, CMG-SDIC Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, Hillhouse, Cinda, and Sherpa, as well as five cornerstone investors in this IPO including RTW Funds, Laurion Capital Master Fund, TruMed, CUAM, and Kelun International.

Mr. Liu Gexin, Chairman of the Board of Kelun-Biotech commented: “As the core subsidiary carrying the innovation mission of Kelun Pharmaceutical, Kelun-Biotech’s successful entry into the international capital market today marks a significant victory for Kelun Pharmaceutical’s ‘innovation-driven’ development strategy. With this listing as an opportunity, Kelun-Biotech will continuously improve its corporate governance structure and undertake corporate social responsibilities, accelerate the clinical research of indication-oriented anti-tumor drugs, expand its differentiated non-oncology drug portfolio and other key areas, and build more competitive platforms and pipelines. Leveraging Kelun Pharmaceutical’s decades-long experience in the domestic market, and the continuously deepening strategic cooperation with MSD, we will promote the development and commercialization process of planned projects and strive to become an innovation-oriented pharmaceutical company with a global vision and industry competitiveness, in addition to rewarding our investors and society as a whole with excellent performance!"

Since its incorporation in 2016, Kelun-Biotech has been dedicated to the R&D, manufacturing and commercialization of novel drugs in oncology, immunology and other therapeutic areas. Kelun-Biotech is one of the first movers in the development of antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), with over a decade of accumulated experience in ADC development and is one of the first biopharmaceutical companies in China, and one of the few globally, to establish an in-house developed ADC platform, OptiDC. Based on this platform, Kelun-Biotech has built up a robust pipeline with 33 highly differentiated and clinically valuable projects centered around two ADCs, SKB264 and A166. Within the pipeline, 14 projects have reached the clinical stage: 5 in pivotal or registrational trials and 9 in Phase 1 or 2 clinical trials.

With the Gong ringing and stock market opening at 9:30am, the shares of Kelun-Biotech began to trade officially, and received an enthusiastic market response. Looking forward, Dr. Junyou Ge, Executive Director and General Manager of Kelun-Biotech remarked: "We will continue to advance and enhance our drug R&D capabilities. In addition to optimizing our R&D platforms and developing novel technologies to support the R&D of innovative drugs, we will strengthen the development of clinical-stage drugs including those with our strategic partners such as MSD, in the areas of rapid indication expansion, monotherapy and combination therapy, early and late-line settings. Furthermore, we will continue to expand our cGMP manufacturing and quality control facilities, enhance our commercialization system and capabilities, and promote the marketing of ever-improving innovative drugs, to bring better treatment options for patients in China and around the world."

About Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Sichuan Kelun-Biotech Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (“Kelun-Biotech”) is a holding subsidiary of Sichuan Kelun Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, which is focused on the R&D, manufacturing, commercialization and international cooperation of biotechnology drugs and innovative small molecule drugs. The company focuses on serious diseases such as solid tumors, autoimmune, inflammatory, and metabolic disease. Building an international drug R&D and industrialization platform to address the unmet clinical needs of the world and China, the Company is committed to becoming an international leading enterprise in the field of innovation. Significant progress has been made in the field of biotechnological drugs, including ADCs, monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibodies, and sought-after technologies for innovative small molecule drugs. OptiDC, an internationally renowned ADC research and development platform, has been successfully constructed by Kelun-Biotech, and 4 ADCs are in clinical trials (including two in registrational Phase III or NDA filing stage), along with multiple projects in preclinical development. At present, the company has 33 innovative projects for the treatment of serious diseases such as solid tumors, autoimmune, inflammatory, and metabolic disease, and 14 programs are advancing in clinical studies, including multiple global multicenter clinical trials which are being conducted simultaneously in several countries and regions including China, Europe, and the United States. To learn more, please visit https://en.kelun-biotech.com/