(Yicai) Jan. 21 -- Joinn Laboratories, China’s largest non-clinical clinical research organization, expects its net profit to have more than tripled last year, mainly because of rising prices of lab monkeys.

Net profit likely surged 214 percent to 371 percent to between CNY233 million and CNY349 million (USD33.5 million and USD50.1 million) in the 12 months ended Dec. 31 from a year earlier, thanks to changes in the fair value of the company’s biological assets, mainly lab monkeys, Joinn Labs announced yesterday.

Meanwhile, revenue is expected to have declined 14 percent to 22 percent to between CNY1.6 billion and CNY1.7 billion (USD225.8 million and USD249.5 million) in the period.

Joinn Labs bought two lab monkey companies -- Weimei Bio-Tech and Yinmore Bio-Tech -- for CNY1.8 billion in 2022. Moreover, it owns a lab monkey breeding base in Wuzhou in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The price of a lab monkey was over CNY200,000 (USD28,725) in 2022, as multiple Covid-19 vaccines and drugs entered the research and development stage. The following year, pharmaceutical companies cut R&D investment as the creation of innovative medicines slowed down, causing the price of lab monkeys to plunge below CNY100,000 per specimen.

With the recovery of the pharmaceutical market and the boom of licensing-out deals for Chinese innovative drugs last year, the price of lab monkeys rebounded, reaching CNY140,000 per three-to-five-year-old specimen, according to data from a research report released by Sealand Securities in December.

Lab monkeys are essential for pre-clinical drug research. More than 70 percent of large molecule drugs require lab monkeys for pre-clinical trials, compared with 20 percent to 30 percent of small molecule chemical drugs.

Editor: Futura Costaglione