The dominant position of Bloomage Biotech in hyaluronic acid is being challenged by collagen

Once upon a time, the market was still discussing when recombinant collagen would replicate the myth of hyaluronic acid and secure a place in the skincare and even medical beauty industries.

Now, the performance contrast between the leading hyaluronic acid company Bloomage Biotech (688363.SH) and the leading recombinant collagen company Giant Bio (2367.HK) seems to further validate previous expectations.

In 2024, Bloomage Biotech's revenue and net profit attributable to the parent company are expected to be 5.371 billion yuan and 174 million yuan, respectively, representing year-on-year declines of 11.61% and 71.10%.

In the same period, Giant Bio's revenue and net profit are expected to reach 5.539 billion yuan and 2.062 billion yuan, respectively, with year-on-year growth of 57.07% and 42%.

Behind this is the fact that Bloomage Biotech's leading position in the skincare industry is being impacted by recombinant collagen.

Bloomage Biotech's skincare revenue has sharply decreased, with only 2.569 billion yuan in 2024, a year-on-year decline of nearly 30%.

If you can't beat them, join them.

Bloomage Biotech has gradually launched related products of recombinant collagen in categories such as skincare, medical beauty, and raw materials. Whether this can bring new growth space for performance remains to be seen by the market.

First Loss

Affected by online e-commerce promotions such as Double Eleven, the fourth quarter has always been a peak season for cosmetics companies.

However, Bloomage Biotech performed mediocrely during "Double Eleven," with fourth-quarter revenue of only 1.496 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of nearly 20%.

This is already the result of Bloomage Biotech's aggressive marketing efforts, with fourth-quarter sales expenses reaching 833 million yuan, an increase of over 80% quarter-on-quarter, but a decline of 7% compared to 2023.

The awkward performance has led to Bloomage Biotech's first quarterly net loss of 188 million yuan.

This is related to accounting treatment, with an asset impairment loss of 141 million yuan recognized in the quarter, mainly involving inventory, goodwill, and other categories.

Bloomage Biotech stated to Xinfeng: "The company is optimizing the coordination of production and sales, and has already begun to see initial results, with inventory levels gradually decreasing."

After shedding the burden, Bloomage Biotech may have more growth space in 2025.

Even so, fundamental challenges still exist.

The functional skincare business that supports Bloomage Biotech (renamed "Skin Science Innovation Transformation," hereinafter referred to as "skincare") has been performing poorly.

In 2024, skincare revenue is expected to be 2.569 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of nearly 30%, with its proportion of total revenue dropping from 60% to around 40%.

This is indeed affected by macro factors such as shrinking consumer demand. For example, the well-established domestic brand Shanghai Jahwa (600315.SH) is expected to have a net loss of 804 million yuan in 2024, more than doubling its year-on-year decline However, the challenging performance also reflects the awkwardness of product innovation and promotion's input-output not meeting expectations.

Since 2024, Bloomage Biotech has launched several new products, including Tightening and Plumping Next-Throw and Tightening Cream, but they have not generated much response in the market.

Bloomage Biotech's Chairman Zhao Yan has publicly acknowledged internal organizational issues.

"Everyone knows that Bloomage Biotech has had significant performance adjustments in the past two years. Part of this adjustment is due to market reasons, but a larger part is because I realized that our organization and talent have not kept pace with the changes of the times, prompting me to hit the brakes," Zhao Yan pointed out.

To boost performance, Zhao Yan has personally stepped in and returned to the front line of business.

"I will move from my previous focus on R&D to the front line of operations, especially in consumer goods management, to fill the gap from scientific research products to the backend of branding," Zhao Yan stated.

Surpassed by Recombinant Collagen

With its leading position in global hyaluronic acid, Bloomage Biotech's skincare and other businesses once soared, but the recent decline in performance seems to indicate that related explorations are reaching their peak.

As early as two years ago, Bloomage Biotech realized that relying solely on hyaluronic acid posed certain risks and began to bet on synthetic biology routes to achieve coverage of multiple materials.

However, this technological route requires long-term accumulation and is difficult to monetize in the short term.

On one side is the main product trapped in a growth bottleneck, while on the other side is the rise of recombinant collagen as a new mainstream ingredient in the medical aesthetics and skincare fields, which is further eating into existing market share.

In 2022, the revenue scale of Recombinant Collagen leader Juzi Biotech was only one-third of Bloomage Biotech's, but it has now fully surpassed it.

In 2024, Juzi Biotech's revenue and net profit were 5.539 billion yuan and 2.062 billion yuan, respectively, representing year-on-year growth of 57.07% and 42%.

Looking solely at net profit, it is already 12 times that of Bloomage Biotech.

Juzi Biotech's sales expenses are also lower than those of Bloomage Biotech.

In 2024, Juzi Biotech's sales expenses were 2.008 billion yuan, about 20% lower than Bloomage Biotech.

According to Juzi Biotech's performance guidance, it is expected that revenue will grow by 25%-28% year-on-year in 2025 (corresponding to 6.95-7.1 billion yuan), and net profit will grow by 21%-24% year-on-year (corresponding to 2.5-2.55 billion yuan).

The rise of new ingredients may be bringing more competitive pressure to Bloomage Biotech.

In response, Bloomage Biotech has been continuously increasing its investment in recombinant collagen.

Since 2024, Bloomage Biotech has successively launched Tightening Cream and multiple skincare products related to Bloomcolla™ Col III-Y01 recombinant collagen;

In terms of raw materials, Bloomage Biotech's medical device-grade recombinant collagen has completed trial production; the recombinant collagen wound dressing has obtained a Class II medical device registration certificate, which is expected to further strengthen its position in the medical aesthetics post-repair market.

Bloomage Biotech's independently developed Class III medical device terminal products of recombinant collagen have entered the clinical trial stage.

However, the difficulty of this registration is not low; currently, only Jinbo Biotech (832982.BJ) has completed the entire process, while Juzi Biotech's expected approval time has been repeatedly delayed In 2022, when Giant Bio went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, it stated that the restructured collagen liquid formulation and the restructured collagen solid formulation targeting various facial wrinkles were expected to be approved for market launch in the first quarter of 2024, both classified as Class III medical devices.

However, this expectation ultimately fell through, and recently, investment institution Puyin International stated that approval is expected in the first quarter of 2025, but there has been no progress to date.

The same goes for Chuangjian Medical, which had anticipated approval for its restructured collagen implant Class III medical device by the end of 2024, but has yet to see any advancement.

Faced with the rapid iteration of key ingredients in skincare and medical aesthetics, the time left for companies like Bloomage Biotech is not too much