Chineseinternet stocksmight be showing their age over the past month or so, as investors wonder whether the likes ofAlibaba Group Holding(ticker:BABA) andTencent Holdings(700.Hong Kong) can keep up their feverish growth pace. But a new industry could be just coming into its own: healthcare.
Names likeWuXi Biologics(2269.Hong Kong) andPing An Healthcare & Technology(1833.Hong Kong) have a fraction of the online giants’ market cap. A confluence of factors all but assures that they will get much bigger: an aging population, bottlenecks in China’s state medical system, surging prowess in drug research, and state support. “The opportunity in Chinese healthcare is completely better than in e-commerce,” says Taizo Ishida, who runs the emerging Asia strategy for Matthews Asia. “The pipeline is solid, and stocks are still cheap in a way.”
From a standing start around 2009, Chinese drugmakers have advanced to rival the West in biotechnology. Last year smashed all investment records with 80 new public companies and $29 billion in private-equity investment, says Greg Scott, CEO of consulting firm ChinaBio. “I’d say they can’t maintain this pace, but I’ve been saying that for a number of years,” he quips.
From this deluge, a few companies are emerging with track records and diversified income streams that don’t depend on a single blockbuster. WuXi Biologics is Ishida’s favorite. Its bread and butter is testing and manufacturing for other pharma powers. This assures steady earnings, while it experiments with its own drugs. “WuXi Biologics is becoming the TSMC of medical,” Ishida says, referring toTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing(TSM), the linchpin of global microchip production.
Tom Masi, co-manager of the emerging wealth strategy at GW&K Investment Management, is partial toJiangsu Hengrui Medicine(600276.China), a veteran generics maker that has upgraded to biotech. It’s battlingInnovent(1801.Hong Kong) andBeiGene(BGNE) for supremacy in China’s enormous oncology market.
Healthcare innovationoutside the laboratory is no less vibrant, and potentially lucrative, in China. Communist planners of yore routed all medical needs, from treatment for a lingering cold to brain surgery, through hospital centers, where harried physicians may see 100 patients a day, says Chelsea Rodstrom, analyst for the recently launchedGlobal X China Disruptionexchange-traded fund (KEJI).
This untenable situation became intolerable during the Covid-19 pandemic. Ping An Healthcare, a spin-off of China’s top insurance company, saw explosive growth for its Good Doctor telemedicine service, which the state supported by reimbursing for the visits. “Healthcare is a perfect nexus for all the innovative themes in China,” Rodstrom says. “It’s using tech and AI to address demographic trends.”
Another outmoded legacy is hospitals’ monopoly on dispensing drugs, leaving Chinese patients waiting for hours just to get prescriptions filled. The nation’s tech powers are on this problem with a vengeance.Alibaba Health Information Technology(241.Hong Kong), sister firm to the e-commerce giant, is focusing on an online pharmacy. Hot on its heels isJD Health International(6618.Hong Kong), which was spun off from rival merchantJD.com(JD) late last year.
If Chinese healthcare shares are cheap, compared with internet stocks, they are still expensive, based on their own histories. Ping An healthcare jumped 50% over the past year. WuXi Biologics has tripled. The whole sector corrected lately.
When it will rebound is a big question. “Over the next three months, it might get interesting to increase our positions,” GW&K’s Masi says.