A monkey costs 160000 yuan! Several leading pharmaceutical enterprises "hoard monkeys", and the price soared 10 times in four years

    Pharmaceutical R & D enterprises are purchasing experimental monkeys on a large scale.

    On June 6, Zhaoyan new drug (603127.sh; 06127.hk) announced that Yingmao biology would become its wholly-owned subsidiary, and 20000 experimental monkeys would gradually be included in the name of Zhaoyan new drug.

    There are many cro enterprises like Zhaoyan new drug that "hoard monkeys". Supply exceeds demand, which also increases the value of experimental monkeys.

    Take the crab eating monkey with the largest use as an example: the previous unit price was less than 7000 yuan, but now it has soared to 160000 yuan, and the price has soared more than 20 times. Some data show that at present, the domestic experimental monkey stock is only about 30000, and the voice of "there is no monkey at all" is growing in the market.

    Cynomolgus monkey

    Behind the "monkey shortage", on the one hand, under the background of the new crown, the R & D demand of pharmaceutical enterprises is expanding, and the government investment is also increasing; On the other hand, on the supply side, monkeys need nearly 4 years to be used in experiments, and an experimental monkey is usually only used for the study of one disease.

    Experimental monkey prices soared 10 times in 4 years

    Insiders: 160000 yuan for one

    Zhaoyan new drug said, "the main reason is that in recent years, the investment in innovative drug research and development of pharmaceutical R & D institutions has been increasing, the demand for experimental models has increased significantly, and the market supply is insufficient, resulting in a sharp rise in the market price, resulting in a large value-added assessment."

    Leading pharmaceutical companies "hoard" experimental monkeys

    In fact, not only Zhaoyan new drug, leading enterprises such as Wuxi apptec (603259.sh; 02359.hk) and KANGLONG Huacheng (300759.sz; 03759.hk) have long realized the importance of hoarding experimental monkeys.

    In 2020, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Wuxi apptec acquired Guangdong Chunsheng monkey farm and harvested more than 20000 crab eating monkeys; In 2021, KANGLONG Huacheng successively acquired 50.01% of the controlling shares of Zhaoqing chuangyao and 100% of the shares of kangruitai (Zhanjiang) biology under new Japan Science, and won more than 10000 experimental monkeys.

    Why is there a monkey shortage?

    The number of breeding monkeys is limited, and it takes 4 years to grow.

    The non repeatability of experimental monkeys further increases the cost and demand of preclinical experiments.

    Public information shows that the crab eating monkey, the monkey most used in experiments, is not a native species and is mainly introduced from Southeast Asia. At present, domestic experimental monkeys are mainly obtained from local monkey farms. Therefore, some market analysts say that with the further reduction of the impact of the epidemic, the shortage of domestic experimental monkeys may be alleviated.