(Yicai Global) March 8 -- Shares of Bio-Thera Solutions slid for a third day after the Chinese drugmaker said last week that it will terminate the clinical trials of two new drugs under development due to excessive competition in the PD-1 anti-cancer drug market.

Star Market-listed Bio-Thera [SHA: 688177] lost 4.6 percent today to end at CNY25 (USD3.83), bringing the decline to 7.2 percent since the company made the announcement on March 4.

The Guangzhou-based firm had invested almost CNY52 million (USD8 million) in research and development for the project as of December. Bio-Thera has not made a profit since it was founded in 2003. It lost CNY513 million (USD78.6 million) last year on revenue of CNY185 million (USD28.3 million). 

One of Bio-Thera’s drugs is in the second phase of clinical trials, and the subsequent trials require a lot of human and financial resources. The company decided to end the tests to allocate R&D resources more rationally and focus on other advantageous projects, Bio-Thera said.

Too many companies are involved in the development of PD-1 anti-cancer drugs, resulting in insufficient numbers of clinically enrolled patients, insufficient clinical trial bases and higher clinical R&D costs, an industry insider told Yicai Global.

There will be more than 20 PD-1 products coming on the global market in the next two to three years amid intensifying competition, Bio-Thera said. China is the most competitive PD-1 market, with 85 such products developed or jointly developed by Chinese companies among 154 in the world. The crowded market and competing products have also driven up development costs.

“PD-1 products are the most urgently needed, as they are appropriate for the most extensive indications,” Sun Piaoyang, former chairman of Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine, said at a healthcare symposium on March 4. “Companies have therefore been busy developing such products.” 

Editor: Tom Litting