China’s Biotechs Were The Small-Cap Rising Stars In H1 2025
The list of small-cap companies with the fastest-rising share prices so far this year is dominated by Chinese companies, underscoring their growing contribution to the global biopharma ecosystem.
Company
HQ Location
Market Cap (converted to USD)
Share Price Change
Harbour Biomed
China
$857m
+370%
Vigil Neuroscience
US
$371m
+368%
Antengene
$227m
+361%
GemVax & KAEL
South Korea
$1.85m
+316%
Jacobio Pharmaceuticals
$436m
+252%
SanBio
Japan
#1.20bn
+221%
Ascletis Pharma
$1.11bn
+210%
Qurient Therapeutics
$296m
+178%
Idorsia
Switzerland
$548m
+162%
DBV Technologies
France
$256m
+161%
China’s biopharma sector is continuing its ascent, with its companies leading the best-performing small-cap publicly-listed companies in the first half of 2025.
Data compiled by Evaluate Pharma show Chinese companies represented four of the ten fastest-growing stocks in this category, reflecting their rising contribution to the global industry via rapid and low-cost but high-quality drug discovery.
Leading the list was Harbour BioMed, which like the other ranking Chinese firms, trades on the Hong Kong stock exchange. It develops novel antibody therapeutics in immunology and oncology and saw its share price rise by 370% over the period, propelled by a hot streak of dealmaking with global biopharma companies.
Harbour Biomed’s rapid share price growth leaves it with a market cap of around HK$6.5bn ($857m), which would be modest for any comparable US biopharma stock, illustrating the limitations of non-US listed firms.
Probably the most significant of its deals was a $105m equity investment and collaboration with AstraZeneca unveiled in March. This granted the big pharma options on two preclinical immunology programs and access to Harbour’s Harbour Mice platform. AstraZeneca also acquired 9.15% of Harbour BioMed’s shares. The total potential payments from this deal could reach $4.4bn and it adds to existing collaborations between the firms.
In May, the company announced a global strategic collaboration with Otsuka to advance BCMAxCD3 bispecific T-cell engagers for autoimmune diseases. Otsuka gained the rights to the preclinical asset HBM7020 outside greater China, with Harbour BioMed eligible for $47m upfront and up to $623m in milestones, plus tiered royalties.
Meanwhile the best performing stock among US companies was Vigil Neuroscience, which saw its share price rocket up from around $2.30 per share when Sanofi announced on May 21 that it was buying the company for $8 per share (a buyout value of $470m) acquiring also its early-stage Alzheimer’s candidate, VG-3927.
Other Chinese companies gaining traction included Ascletis Pharma, which saw investors flock to it after it presented promising early-phase results from its oral obesity candidate, ACS30.
Phase I data for the GLP-1 agonist from China-based studies in February were followed by similar results from a parallel US study in May, which showed potentially best-in-class 6.3% weight loss in patients with obesity after just four weeks of treatment.
Most of these Chinese small-cap companies are pursuing an out-licensing strategy for their assets in ex-China markets, while attempting to build a presence in their domestic market either directly or via local licensing deals.
Jacobio is one such company and saw its share price grow more than 250% in the period, driven by its focus on RAS inhibitor drug discovery.
In May, the company saw its KRAS G12C inhibitor, glecirasib, gain approval in China in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring KRAS G12C mutations who have received at least one prior systemic therapy.
That triggered a milestone payment from its partner Shanghai Allist Pharmaceuticals of RMB50m ($6.93m). Competition in China’s market is, however, beginning to resemble Western markets: glecirasib will have to compete with the first KRAS G12C drug to hit the China market, Innovent’s Dupert (fulzerasib.)
Finally, just two Europe-based companies made the top ten small-cap risers list. One of these was Switzerland’s Idorsia, which staged a strong revival in the period, after coming close to bankruptcy last year. Its share price rose by more than 160% after it raised CHF150m ($187m) to fund its work into 2026 and reported improved take-up of its only marketed product, the insomnia treatment Quviviq (daridorexant).
