Xin Lang Cai Jing·2026-01-01 10:53Core Insights - The CXO sector in A/H shares shows signs of fundamental recovery ahead of expectations in 2025 after three years of valuation downgrades [1] - The recovery is uneven, with the clinical CRO segment still facing challenges, indicating a divergence in industry recovery [1][7] Group 1: Financial Performance - WuXi AppTec (药明康德) reported a revenue of 32.857 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 18.61%, and a net profit of 12.076 billion yuan, up 84.84% [1] - The company had a backlog of orders amounting to 59.880 billion yuan as of September 2025, reflecting a 37.2% year-on-year growth [1] - The average price of clinical research services in China has decreased by approximately 30% since 2022, impacting gross and net profit margins [2] Group 2: Order Fulfillment and Business Model - The business model of CXO leads to a natural lag in order fulfillment, with revenue recognition often taking multiple quarters or years [2] - WuXi AppTec's backlog at the end of 2024 was 49.310 billion yuan, 1.26 times its revenue for that year, indicating visible future revenue growth potential [2] - The order-to-revenue ratio is crucial for assessing conversion efficiency, with a healthy range identified between 1.2 to 1.3 times [3] Group 3: Market Dynamics and Challenges - The global pharmaceutical R&D investment continues to grow, but structural fluctuations are evident, particularly among innovative drug startups [1] - The clinical CRO segment is heavily influenced by funding constraints and project strategy adjustments, leading to a situation where project numbers increase but individual project outputs decline [8] - The international expansion of clinical CROs raises higher standards for organizational capability and compliance, making short-term recovery challenging [8] Group 4: Emerging Opportunities - The global expansion of GLP-1 and related indications has led to unexpected order increases in upstream peptide and related processes, maintaining high demand in 2025 [9] - Core stock Novartis Bio (诺泰生物) achieved a revenue of 1.527 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2025, with a net profit of 445 million yuan, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 21.95% and 26.92% respectively [9] - The market for cell and gene therapy (CGT) is still growing, but profitability remains elusive, with significant investments required before becoming a core profit driver [10][11]