AI Pharma Adds Another Force, and Kevala Pharma Lists on HKEX Up 126% on the First Day

China's AI drug delivery company, Jitai Technology, officially went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Wednesday, with an issuance price of 10.50 HKD, opening at 28.68 HKD, and reaching a peak of 29.98 HKD during the trading session, marking a maximum increase of over 185% compared to the issuance price. The market value once broke through 34.5 billion HKD, equivalent to approximately 30 billion CNY. The closing price increase was 126.67%.

Thus far, the "AI pharmaceutical trinity" – Jingtai Technology, Insilico Medicine, and Jitai Technology have completed their assembly on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Jitai Technology has set a new record in China's biopharmaceutical industry by going public within six years since its establishment.

The SpaceX of the Pharmaceutical Industry

Founded by CEO Lai Caida in 2020, Jitai Technology focuses on AI drug delivery using lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) as carriers, establishing the world's first AI nano-delivery platform, NanoForge. Relying on a diverse structural lipid library of over 10 million types, it achieves precise target delivery of macromolecule drugs to 8 major organs, compressing the average development time of formulations to just 2 to 3 months.

The company positions itself as a "DaaS (Delivery as a Service)" platform, offering a universal and reusable platform for pharmaceutical companies to directly operate on. Lai Caida compares this model to SpaceX: "SpaceX won't customize a rocket for NASA alone, and we won't customize a delivery system for a single pharmaceutical company. Instead, we do well in making a universal, reusable delivery platform, and pharmaceutical companies can directly ride our system to market their drugs."

Based on NanoForge, the core pipeline product MTS-004, targeting indications such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease, has a formulation development cycle of only 3 months and completed from initiation to phase III clinical trials in just 38 months, making it the world's first AI-enabled clinical phase III formulation innovation medicine.

The company currently has over 10 pipeline products, covering pre-clinical, clinical phases, and pre-NDA products, and also has a presence in the animal health field. Traditional new drug development generally follows the "double ten rule," but Jitai has compressed this cycle to as fast as 11 months with the help of AI technology.

Early Investors Reap Substantial Returns, Star-studded Institutions Gather

Fengrui Capital, with a $4 million lead investment in the angel round, has a book profit as high as 37 times after going public, making it the biggest winner of this IPO round. Sequoia China, Five Sources Capital, and Lightspeed China have book returns of 14.23 times, 6.95 times, and 14.61 times respectively, and Source Code Capital is also among the early investors.

After going public, entities related to CICC hold about 9.44% of the shares, entities related to Sequoia China hold about 5.69%, the PICC Health and Retirement Fund holds about 4.37%, Five Sources Capital holds about 3.94%, Lightspeed China holds 3.75%, and Fengrui-related entities collectively hold about 3.58%.

The three co-founders, Lai Caida, Chen Hongmin, and Wang Wen, hold stakes of 10.53%, 5.80%, and 3.03% respectively. According to the current market value, their fortunes are about 3.2 billion CNY, 1.7 billion CNY, and 900 million CNY respectively.

Riding the Wave of Chinese Innovative Drug Going Global

Industry data shows that by 2025, the scale of Chinese innovative drug authorizations overseas will exceed 135.6 billion USD, an increase of more than 1.6 times year-on-year, for the first time surpassing the United States to rank first globally, with large molecule drugs being the core driving force of this round of outbreak.

As a platform company that specializes in providing delivery "rockets" for large molecule drugs, Jitai Technology is seen by the market as a direct beneficiary. Lai Caida's benchmark enterprise is Alnylam, which has achieved explosive growth with GalNAc delivery technology – the latter has been focusing on the delivery mainline for over a decade before finally taking off. He admits that J