HUTCHMED Announces US$608 million Divestment of Non-Core Joint Venture

— HUTCHMED continues to deliver on its strategy outlined in November 2022 to create value, prioritize its portfolio and bring innovative medicines to patients globally —

— Divestment proceeds to advance HUTCHMED’s pipeline and core innovative medicines business —

— Focused R&D investment includes HUTCHMED’s proprietary antibody-targeted therapy conjugate platform, with first candidates expected to enter clinical trials in the second half of 2025 —

Hong Kong, Shanghai & Florham Park, NJ — Wednesday, January 1, 2025: HUTCHMED (China) Limited (“HUTCHMED”) (Nasdaq/AIM:HCM; HKEX:13) announces that it has entered into two agreements to divest its 45% equity interest in Shanghai Hutchison Pharmaceuticals Limited (“SHPL”) for approximately US$608 million (RMB4,478 million) in cash, to GP Health Service Capital Co., Ltd (“GP Health Service Capital”) and Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding Co., Ltd. (“Shanghai Pharma”) (HKEX:02607; SSE:601607). HUTCHMED has been exploring opportunities to monetize the underlying value of SHPL, a non-core, non-consolidated joint venture. These transactions would allow HUTCHMED to focus on its core business of discovering, developing and commercializing novel therapies for the treatment of cancers and immunological diseases, including advancing its next-generation antibody-targeted-therapy conjugate programs.

HUTCHMED will host a short update call on Tuesday, January 7, 2025. Details will be available at www.hutch-med.com/event in due course.

SHPL primarily manufactures, sells and distributes its own-brand prescription medicines in China, predominantly for cardiovascular diseases. SHPL is a 50:50 joint venture established between HUTCHMED and Shanghai Pharma in 2001. In 2023, the consolidated net income attributable to HUTCHMED from SHPL was US$47.4 million. HUTCHMED does not consolidate revenue from SHPL.

HUTCHMED plans to invest the proceeds from these transactions to further develop its internal pipeline and drive its core business strategy forward. This pipeline and strategy includes its next-generation antibody drug conjugate (“ADC”) platform, which builds on HUTCHMED’s extensive knowledge from pursuing oncological pathways and proven expertise in small molecule targeted therapeutics. By combining antibodies with targeted therapeutics instead of cytotoxins, these antibody-targeted therapy conjugates (“ATTCs”) offer dual mechanisms for addressing a target. Pre-clinical research has shown robust anti-tumor activity with durable response following a single administration, and stronger anti-tumor activity compared to administration with the individual antibody and targeted therapy components, improving tolerability associated with targeted therapy. HUTCHMED plans to move the first of these ATTCs into clinical trials in the second half of 2025. 

“This transaction to divest most of our holding in SHPL is another example of HUTCHMED delivering on the strategy outlined in 2022, accelerating our path to profitability and focusing on core operations. SHPL is a well-established business, having delivered over US$370 million in dividends to HUTCHMED throughout the years, and we are confident that it continues to have promising future growth prospects,” said Dr Dan Eldar, Chairman and Non-executive Director of HUTCHMED. “We are focused on capitalizing on our two decades of deep research into oncogenic drivers of disease and discovering and developing highly optimized therapies, through our unique ATTC platform.”

GP Health Service Capital is a China-based private-equity firm with no prior interest in SHPL. Prior to the transactions, HUTCHMED and Shanghai Pharma each holds a 50% equity interest in SHPL. Under the terms of the agreements, GP Health Service Capital has agreed to acquire a 35% equity interest in SHPL from HUTCHMED for approximately US$473 million in cash, and Shanghai Pharma has agreed to acquire a 10% equity interest from HUTCHMED for approximately US$135 million in cash and will hold a total of 60% equity interest in SHPL after the transactions. Out of its 35%, GP Health Service Capital retains the right to designate a third party investment fund to acquire up to a 10% equity interest in SHPL. HUTCHMED will retain a 5% equity interest in SHPL after the transactions.