---
title: "Imugene Rushes to List on HKEX: A 'Final Battle' in Cell Therapy"
description: "While Hong Kong-listed biotech companies are still anxious about &#34;who can become profitable first,&#34; a Shenzhen-based company has shifted the question to a different dimension: it's not about m"
type: "topic"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/topics/38741507.md"
published_at: "2026-02-14T09:35:41.000Z"
author: "[港股研究社](https://longbridge.com/en/profiles/3199113)"
---

# Imugene Rushes to List on HKEX: A 'Final Battle' in Cell Therapy

While Hong Kong-listed Biotech companies are still anxious about "who can be profitable first," a Shenzhen-based company has already shifted the question to a different dimension: it's not about making money first, but about first traversing the technological no-man's-land.

Recently, Shenzhen ImmuQuine Biotechnology Co., Ltd. formally submitted its listing application to the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with Huatai International as its exclusive sponsor. Looking at its financial statements, it exhibits almost all the characteristics of a "typical Biotech": revenue of only a few million yuan, yet R&D expenses often reach tens of millions, it's not yet commercialized, faces cash flow pressure, and the story is far greater than the reality.

But if you take a longer-term perspective, you'll find it's betting not on just another pipeline, but on a more decisive industrial leap. As CAR-T moves from hematological tumors to solid tumors, and as "customized therapy" attempts to become a "mass-producible drug," whoever first navigates this hurdle may rewrite the pricing power for the next wave of cell therapies.

This is not just an IPO; it's an early move to secure a position for the industry's endgame.

**Whoever crosses Phase III first will hold the next boarding pass**

Over the past decade, CAR-T has been seen as the most exciting technological revolution in cancer treatment.

It has brought remission to a group of patients with advanced leukemia and lymphoma in desperate situations and has also spawned multi-billion dollar drugs and companies. But beneath the capital frenzy, a harsh reality is becoming clear: the growth potential of the hematological tumor market is reaching its ceiling.

The patient base for hematological malignancies is inherently limited, and treatment is highly concentrated in relapsed/refractory populations. Although CAR-T has outstanding efficacy, it's difficult to achieve truly large-scale volume expansion. More importantly, as multiple products come to market, competition intensifies, and price negotiations with medical insurance systems squeeze profit margins.

This means the first generation of CAR-T companies proved "technological feasibility" but have yet to prove "industrial scalability."

What truly determines the industry's ceiling is solid tumors. Solid tumors account for over 90% of all cancer cases, with patient numbers in the tens of millions. Gastric cancer alone sees over a million new cases globally each year, with China being the world's largest single market. From an epidemiological perspective, solid tumors are almost the only potential entry point for CAR-T to reach a market size of hundreds of billions or even trillions.

The problem is, this is a "hard bone" that countless companies have repeatedly failed to crack.

The tumor microenvironment of solid tumors acts like a natural barrier, making it difficult for T cells to infiltrate; target expression is highly heterogeneous, leading to off-target effects; persistence is poor, recurrence rates are high, and toxic side effects are hard to control. Over the past decade, global CAR-T companies have invested heavily in solid tumors, yet few have succeeded in reaching key clinical stages.

Therefore, in this race, clinical progress itself has become a scarce resource.

ImmuQuine's value lies precisely here. Its core product, IMC002, targeting the CLDN18.2 antigen, has entered Phase III pivotal clinical trials for treating solid tumors.

Globally, CAR-T candidates that have advanced to Phase III for solid tumors are few and far between, meaning it has already transitioned from a "research project" to a "quasi-commercial asset."

This is a watershed. In the Biotech world, Phase I validates safety, Phase II shows preliminary efficacy, and Phase III truly benchmarks against commercial drugs. Once successful, a company's valuation model shifts from "R&D story" to "discounted future cash flows," moving from lab logic to industrial logic.

In other words, ImmuQuine's competitors are no longer just domestic innovative drug companies, but the global first tier in cell therapy.

More notably, it hasn't placed all its bets on a single target. IMC001 targets EpCAM, a broad epithelial solid tumor antigen, expanding into broader indications like pancreatic, colorectal, ovarian, and breast cancers. Meanwhile, the company is also developing an in vivo CAR-T platform, attempting to break the cost ceiling of traditional manufacturing models.

This is a more "industrialized" approach, rather than an all-or-nothing technological gamble.

If the first generation of CAR-T companies relied on a single blockbuster product, what ImmuQuine is trying to build is a platform capability, enabling cell therapies to be produced, replicated, and scaled like conventional drugs. This is also the confidence behind its bold bet in the deep waters of solid tumors.

**The real war in cell therapy has never been about efficacy, but about manufacturing**

Looking at ImmuQuine's financial report, you'll see data that makes traditional investors frown. Annual revenue is only a few million yuan, while R&D investment reaches tens of millions, a typical "high investment, zero return" curve. This is almost the common profile of all early-stage Biotechs.

But in the field of cell therapy, this financial structure hides a deeper problem: the biggest bottleneck for CAR-T has never been just efficacy, but manufacturing.

Traditional ex vivo CAR-T uses a "patient-customized" model, requiring separate T-cell collection, ex vivo modification, expansion, and reinfusion for each patient. The process is complex, lengthy, and labor-intensive, leading to prohibitively high costs per treatment course. Overseas product prices often reach hundreds of thousands of dollars, making it difficult to become a truly accessible treatment for the masses, even with good efficacy.

This means that if cell therapy cannot move towards industrialization, it will forever remain a luxury for the few. And this is the real battlefield for the industry's next phase.

The iMAGIC in vivo CAR-T platform proposed by ImmuQuine is essentially a paradigm shift. By using viral or non-viral delivery systems to reprogram T cells directly within the patient's body, it theoretically bypasses the complex ex vivo production process, bringing CAR-T closer to an "off-the-shelf drug."

Once this path is proven, costs could drop by orders of magnitude, production efficiency could increase significantly, and the treatment model would shift from "customized medical service" to "standardized drug supply." This is not just a technical improvement, but a manufacturing revolution.

For the capital market, such a story is far more attractive than a single pipeline. The Hong Kong Biotech sector has undergone a deep adjustment in the past two years. Investors are no longer paying for "pipeline quantity," but are focusing more on clinical stage, commercialization certainty, and platform capabilities. Whoever is closer to market launch and profitability is more likely to receive a valuation premium.

Under this screening logic, the combination of a Phase III solid tumor asset and an industrialized platform is inherently more scarce. This is also the practical consideration behind ImmuQuine's choice to list on the HKEX at this time. The capital winter hasn't fully lifted, but companies truly close to the clinical finish line are more likely to stand out.

From a broader perspective, the CAR-T industry is undergoing a generational shift. The first generation of players proved "cell therapy can cure disease";

The second generation must prove "cell therapy can become an industry." The former solves scientific problems, the latter solves cost and scale problems.

If solid tumor CAR-T is successfully commercialized, its impact might be no less than when PD-1 opened the era of volume expansion in cancer immunotherapy. At that time, platform companies with first-mover advantages and manufacturing capabilities will gain valuation space far exceeding that of single-product companies.

Therefore, the true significance of ImmuQuine's IPO is not just another Biotech queuing up for listing, but an attempt to secure an early position for the industry's endgame.

On the long track of cell therapy, efficacy determines survival, but manufacturing determines the ceiling. Whoever can turn "cells" into "drugs" truly owns the future. And ImmuQuine clearly doesn't want to be just a good student in the lab; what it's competing for is the first admission ticket to the era of solid tumor CAR-T.

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> **Disclaimer**: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.
