(Yicai) Jan. 24 -- Shares of Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy fell after the Chinese papillomavirus vaccine maker said it expects net profit to have narrowed over 70 percent last year because of the pressure form imported competitors.

Wantai [SHA: 603392] closed down 3.7 percent at CNY62 (USD8.75) in Shanghai today.

Net profit likely shrank 71 percent to 75 percent to between CNY1.2 billion and CNY1.4 billion (USD169.3 million and USD190.5 million) in the 12 months ended Dec. 31 from the year before, the Beijing-based company announced yesterday.

Sales of Wantai’s bivalent HPV vaccine Cecolin fell short of expectations because of the competition from an imported nine-valent HPV vaccine, resulting in a sharp decline in revenue and profit from the vaccine business segment, the firm noted. Revenue from Cecolin fell by about CNY4.2 billion last year from the previous one.

Moreover, the demand for Covid-19 test kits plunged, resulting in a revenue decrease of about CNY1.2 billion in the period.

Cecolin was the first Chinese HPV vaccine to hit the domestic market in May 2020. In the first half of last year, revenue from Cecolin sales declined for the first time, causing net profit from the vaccine to fall 37 percent from a year earlier.

Gardasil 9, the nine-valent HPV vaccine of US pharmaceutical giant Merck Sharp & Dome, was approved in Chinese mainland for women aged 16 to 26 on April 2018. Since Aug 2022 the eligible age has been extended to 9 to 45 years old.

Walvax Biotechnology, another Chinese bivalent HPV vaccine maker, told investors earlier this month that after Gardasil 9 was approved for women up to 45 years old, the demand from women over 30 was gradually seized by Gardasil 9.

Cecolin is seeking to break through overseas markets, such as those of some Southeast Asian countries, but it is still difficult to say whether the sales performance of the vaccine can boost the revenues to return to their peak.

Editor: Futura Costaglione