(Yicai Global) March 28 -- Chipscreen Biosciences, the Chinese firm which made the world's first approved oral medication for peripheral T-cell lymphoma, is expecting to list on Shanghai's new board for innovative science and technology firms after it sold USD22.3 million worth of the medicine last year.

The Shenzhen-based drugmaker hopes to raise CNY804 million (USD120 million) through the listing, according to its prospectus published by the Shanghai bourse yesterday. It will use the funds to build a research and development center for innovative medicines, a regional headquarters and production and research bases for new drugs, with the rest of the cash going toward marketing, debts and supplementing capital.

Founded in 2001, Chipscreen focuses on medicines for tumors and metabolic and immune diseases. Its original medicine chidamide, used to treat PTCL, hit the domestic market in December 2014 and was the world's first oral treatment approved for the disease. Sales of the drug now make up 90 percent of its revenue and are rising rapidly, according to the prospectus, which showed with net profit hit CNY31.3 million (USD4.7 million) last year, four times the size of its 2016 earnings.

Chidamide made it into China's medicine catalogue for its national healthcare insurance system in 2017, after cutting its selling price by around 30 percent -- part of the reasons sales grew so quickly. Revenue from the drug grew 66 percent in 2017, the prospectus added.

The only major downside is that recurrent and refractory PTCL, the primary disease targeted by the medicine, is relatively rare and has few patients, limiting market size.

Chipscreen is exploring other ways in which the drug can be used. It confirmed that chidamide can also be used to treat breast cancer with solid tumors and sought approval from the China Food and Drug Administration last year to use the drug in this way. It is also considering a combination therapy using chidamide and programmed cell death protein 1, or PD-1, to treat certain immune diseases.

The firm is also working on other drugs and has 14 medicines currently being researched, eight of which are independently developed. It has invested at least 55 percent of revenue in research and development over the last three years, the firm said in its prospectus.

Editor: James Boynton