A group of Hong Kong-listed biotechnology companies have seen their stock prices surge in the wake of Moderna’s breakthrough cancer vaccine trial, as the Chinese companies push forward with similar vaccine programmes. The companies – from Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals to Li Ka-shing-backed CK Life Sciences – already have a slew of cancer vaccines in development. “China is moving quickly and has already built a large pipeline of more than 100 cancer vaccine programmes,” said Cui Cui, head of healthcare research for Asia at Jefferies. “The next challenge is how to replicate Moderna’s breakthrough in other tumour types, as melanoma alone is not a big market,” Cui added, referring to the severe form of skin cancer Moderna’s vaccine treats. An estimated 2.58 million people died of cancer in China in 2024, according to the latest data from the country’s National Cancer Centre. It also remains to be seen whether the companies can manufacture personalised vaccines quickly and at a reasonable cost, according to the analyst. Markets reacted with euphoria after Moderna and Merck announced last week that their personalised mRNA vaccine had cut the risk of melanoma returning or spreading in a phase three trial of about 1,140 patients – a first for an mRNA cancer vaccine. mRNA-based approaches are more agile and cost-efficient compared with traditional methods that rely on growing cells or proteins Bruce Liu, Simon-Kucher The excitement has also rippled across China, with Shanghai-based Everest Medicines seeing its shares in Hong Kong rise 34 per cent over the past five days. CK Life Sciences, a unit of Li Ka-shing-backed CK Group, has also jumped more than 11 per cent. “The therapeutic cancer vaccines are intended to treat people that have cancer,” said Dr Melvin Toh Kean-meng, CK Life Sciences’ vice-president and chief scientific officer. “The purpose of the vaccine is either to prevent the cancer from coming back after the tumour has been removed, or to actually treat the cancer even though it’s still there.” “When it is injected into a patient, it triggers the patient’s immune system to have an immune response, usually in the form of a T cell response. The T cells will then be able to attack the cancer cells and kill the cancer cells,” he added. “Sometimes a vaccine can also trigger an antibody response, and that can also help to control the tumour growth.” Both CK Life Sciences and Moderna are developing therapeutic vaccines. But unlike Moderna’s personalised approach, CK Life Sciences is developing “off-the-shelf, non-personalised vaccines” using circular RNA, according to Toh. “We think that’s the part that will make it more widely accessible, rather than very specific to individual patients,” he said. The firm’s most advanced asset was expected to enter clinical trials by late 2027, he added. Personalised cancer treatment involves doctors taking a tumour sample from the patient to identify key mutations or neoantigens, and then creating a personalised vaccine that is injected back into the patient, according to Bruce Liu, a senior partner at consulting firm Simon-Kucher. The treatment comes with a steep price tag. Beijing-based Likang Life Sciences, which has developed its own personalised mRNA vaccine candidate, estimates its treatment would cost less than 100,000 yuan (US$14,900) for a six-dose course. Founded in 2019, the company has raised US$27.42 million, according to market data provider Caplight. In China, most cancer vaccine candidates are still in the very early stages of clinical development, as “the field remains at an early stage overall”, according to Cui. Firms including Shanghai Regenelead Therapies – a subsidiary of Jiangsu Hengrui – as well as Hangzhou Newanjin Biotechnology and Likang Life Sciences have started phase two trials for personalised mRNA cancer vaccines, according to a report by Zhongtai Securities released on Monday. Other companies including Akeso – which the report dubbed the DeepSeek of China’s biotech industry – Youcare Pharmaceutical Group and Everest Medicines have entered phase one trials, Zhongtai Securities added. “The technology has entered human trials at some leading Chinese biotech companies and has shown commercial value in treating pancreatic cancer,” said Stella Ling, the founder of JingYuan Consulting and a pharmaceutical industry veteran. According to Liu of Simon-Kucher, “mRNA-based approaches are more agile and cost-efficient compared with traditional methods that rely on growing cells or proteins”.