Ruibo Biotech passed the hearing: Strong technical barriers are superimposed on specialized pipelines, and the Hong Kong market is once again welcoming scarce innovative drug targets

As Ruibo Biotech, the main pioneer of small nucleic acid drugs in China, passed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange hearing, the Hong Kong stock market added another innovative drug brand with extremely scarce value.

On December 21, according to the official website of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Suzhou Ruibo Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Ruibo Biotech”) passed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's main board listing hearing. CICC and Citibank were co-sponsors. The company is a major participant in the global research and development of small nucleic acid drugs (with a particular focus on siRNA therapy). Currently, Ruibo Biotech is one of the largest siRNA drug pipeline companies in the world, and seven self-developed drug assets are in clinical trials.

Judging from industry trends, the small nucleic acid drug circuit in which Ruibo Biotech is located is currently viewed as the “third wave” after small molecule and antibody drugs. Compared with traditional small molecule drugs and antibody drugs, it provides a wider range of candidate targets, and has the advantages of shorter development cycle, better targeting and specificity, and is in a period of rapid development. According to Frost & Sullivan, the global small nucleic acid therapy market is expected to be valued at US$18.6 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 29.5% from 2024 to 2029.

However, due to the high technical barriers in the small nucleic acid drug industry, how to accurately, efficiently, and safely deliver drugs to target organs (such as intrahepatic and extra-hepatic) is the core challenge of the industry. Therefore, it can be said that there are very few innovative domestic pharmaceutical companies such as Ruibo Biotech that can break through technical barriers in the industry and are close to the eve of commercialization.

Of course, Ruibo Biotech's success was not achieved overnight; it was the result of a combination of pipeline layout, technical strength, and strategic strength.

Judging from the pipeline layout, Ruibo focuses deeply on the golden track of small nucleic acids, moving from rare diseases to common diseases. The pipeline layout is rich and balanced, and there is great room for long-term development.

Zhitong Finance has observed that unlike most traditional pharmaceutical companies that lay out chemicals and biopharmaceuticals, Ruibo Biotech is highly focused on the cutting-edge circuit of small nucleic acid pharmaceuticals. At present, the company has seven self-developed drugs that have entered the clinical trial stage, involving eight indications for cardiovascular, metabolic, kidney and liver diseases. Four of these are in phase 2 clinical trials. Its HDV-targeting RBD1016 product was certified as an EMA orphan drug in October 2025. In addition to the clinical product pipeline, the company also has more than 20 pre-clinical projects planned to advance to the clinical development stage.

Among them, the core product RBD4059 (siRNA targeting FXI) is the world's first siRNA drug for treating thrombotic diseases with the fastest clinical development. All patients who completed this phase 2a clinical trial were enrolled in February 2025, and the trial is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

In addition, the company's RBD5044 (siRNA targeting ApoC3) and RBD7022 (siRNA targeting PCSK9) products are also two drug candidates with good development prospects. RBD5044 is mainly used to treat hypertriglyceridemia (HTG). It is the world's second siRNA targeting APOC3 to enter clinical development. Currently, phase 2 trials of this drug for patients with mixed dyslipidemia are being conducted in Sweden. RBD7022 is used to treat hypercholesterolemia. It is also the world's second siRNA targeting pCSK9 to enter clinical development. Phase 1 trial of RBD7022 was completed in China in March 2025. Currently, partner Qilu Pharmaceutical is promoting phase 2 clinical trials.

As can be seen, the Ruibo biological pipeline includes drugs for rare diseases such as hereditary angioedema, as well as drugs for common diseases such as hypercholesterolemia and high blood pressure, which have a large base. This layout can not only establish brands and commercialize rare disease drugs in the short term, but also provides huge room for market imagination for long-term development.

Judging from its technical strength, in addition to overcoming the industry's “stuck neck” problem (delivery technology) to build a technical moat, Ruibo Biotech has also built an “innovation engine” with long-term vitality for the company through an independent technology platform. The competitive advantage is self-evident.

According to reports, Ruibo Biotech is one of the few companies in the world with self-developed and clinically proven GalNAc delivery technology. This technology is based on specific delivery of siRNA drugs, enhances efficacy and improves safety, and is disrupting the treatment concept of innovative drugs. Among them, the company's liver-targeted RiboGalStar™ delivery technology is the cornerstone of many pipeline assets and addresses one of the key challenges of siRNA therapy—that is, efficient and specific delivery. This has undoubtedly overcome the core “stuck neck” problem in the industry and built a strong technical moat for the company.

With this platform, Ruibo Biotech can target different hepatogenic disease targets, achieve efficient and rapid drug development, and ultimately form a “platform-based” production capacity for pipeline products. At the same time, Ruibo Biotech has also made significant progress in other organs and tissues in the extra-hepatic field, such as the RiboEpStartM delivery technology platform for kidney, central nervous system, and metabolic tissues such as adipocytes and muscle, and the RiboOncoStar™ delivery technology platform for tumors, and is currently at the cutting edge of global micronucleic acid development.

Under this strong technical moat and forward-looking product pipeline layout, Ruibo Biotech's revenue is growing rapidly, and it is expected that the transition from Biotech to Biopharma will soon be realized.

According to the prospectus, Ruibo Biotech achieved revenue of 143 million yuan in 2024, of which revenue for the first half of 2024 was 66 million yuan, and it has further grown to 103 million yuan in the first half of 2025.

The company's recent steady increase in revenue is mainly due to the strategic cooperation it has reached with leading international and domestic pharmaceutical companies and its steady progress. Since December 2023, Ruibo Biotech has successively signed cooperation and licensing agreements with Qilu Pharmaceuticals and Boehringer Ingelheim, and each reached its first R&D milestone in the first half of 2025, successfully triggering milestone payments.

These collaborations not only bring phased revenue to the company, but are also an important endorsement of its R&D strength and platform potential. Subsequently, with the launch of Ruibo Biotech's major pharmaceuticals one after another, with a strong brand effect, the company will also have sufficient momentum to transform from an R&D company to a comprehensive pharmaceutical company with commercialization capabilities.

In addition to this, Ruibo Biotech's steady international strategic layout, including overseas R&D centers with self-developed phase 2 clinical trial bases, a global clinical reporting strategy, and a high-level world-class R&D team, will not only further consolidate and enhance the company's own global competitiveness, but will also lead China's small nucleic acid industry to further and more systematically rewrite the global biomedical competition pattern.

Taken together, the benchmark significance of Ruibo Biotech lies not only in its status as a pioneer of small nucleic acids in China, but also because it has successfully verified a differentiated path focused on cutting-edge innovation. Faced with the challenges of a high technical threshold and a long R&D cycle, many pharmaceutical companies are either discouraged by insufficient technology accumulation or the short-term nature of capital and strategy, while Ruibo has established its leading position on this racetrack with its core technology and long-term principles.

Therefore, Ruibo's listing in Hong Kong this time is obviously equivalent to providing investors with a scarce opportunity to participate in the wave of small nucleic acid drug innovation in China.