(Yicai Global) Jan. 5 -- Chinese real estate developer Greenland Holdings has increased its stake in Junshi Biosciences after the firm’s new Covid-19 antiviral pill was shown to be as effective as Pfizer’s Paxlovid in phase three clinical trials, but with fewer reported side effects.

Two companies of Greenland unit Green Financial Investment Holding Group bought 6.7 million new Hong Kong-listed shares of Junshi Bio on Dec. 30, the Shanghai-based drugmaker said in stock exchange filings yesterday.

The new shares, worth about HKD298 million (USD38.1 million) based on the average price on Dec. 30, equal nearly 0.7 percent of Junshi Bio's total shares outstanding on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. After the transaction, Greenland, its units, and persons acting in concert own 51.4 million shares, or 5.2 percent, of Junshi Bio.

The Greenland units are confident about Junshi Bio's future development and recognize its long-term investment value, they said, adding that they may adjust their stake again in the next 12 months.

Shares of Junshi Bio [SHA: 688180] closed up 1.8 percent at CNY62.47 (USD9.09) today, while its Hong Kong-listed stock [HKG: 1877] jumped 3.2 percent to end at HKD42.15 (USD5.39).

VV116, Junshi Bio's oral Covid-19 drug, showed good progress in phase three clinical trials, the firm said on its WeChat account on Dec. 29. Compared with Paxlovid, VV116 has a shorter clinical recovery period and fewer safety concerns when treating mild and moderate Covid-19 cases, it noted.

In a clinical trial of 822 people in Shanghai from March to May, patients taking VV116 recovered after a median of four days, compared with five days for those on Paxlovid, according to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Dec. 28. The number of adverse events was lower in the VV116 group than in those taking Paxlovid, per the study.

Junshi Bio has not yet applied to market VV116, but it set up a dedicated team to continue work on the medicine's research and development while maintaining communications with drug regulators. It developed VV116 together with Vigonvita Life Science and researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Editor: Martin Kadiev