Ascentage Pharma's H1 2026 revenue rose 29.3% to RMB 302.2M on olverembatinib and lisaftoclax sales, but the net loss widened 38.3% to RMB 817.0M and cash fell to RMB 1.9B.
Revenue
CNY 302M
+29.3% YoY
Net income
-CNY 817M
-38.3% YoY
Diluted EPS
CNY -2.19
-26.6% YoY
Sales up 29%, but the loss grew faster as Ascentage paid for a second drug launch and nine late-stage trials
Ascentage Pharma, a China-based cancer drug maker listed on Nasdaq (as ADSs, with each ADS equal to 4 ordinary shares) and in Hong Kong, reported revenue of RMB 302.2 million (US$44.5 million) for the six months to June 30, 2026. That is up 29.3% from a year earlier, and all of it was earned in mainland China. The growth came from product sales of its two approved drugs: olverembatinib, a leukemia treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and lisaftoclax, a Bcl-2 inhibitor that was approved in China in July 2025 for a form of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL/SLL). Spending grew faster than sales, though. Research and development (R&D) rose 32.0% and selling costs rose 64.3%, so the net loss widened 38.3% to RMB 817.0 million (US$120.4 million). Cash and bank balances fell by RMB 574.5 million in six months, to RMB 1,895.6 million (US$279.4 million).
At a glance
Product sales of RMB 282.4 million, up 32.6% year on year but about 1% below the second half of 2025. FY2025 product sales were RMB 499.3 million according to the 20-F. Subtracting the first half's RMB 212.9 million leaves RMB 286.4 million for H2 2025. So the year-on-year jump mostly compares against a period before lisaftoclax launched and before olverembatinib's expanded reimbursement had fully ramped up. Sales did not grow from the previous half.
Operating cash outflow of RMB 581.2 million, up 34.5%. At that pace, the RMB 1,895.6 million cash pile covers a little over three more half-years. That estimate leaves out the RMB 1,475.1 million of bank borrowings that fall due within 12 months.
Gross margin of 96.1%, up from 90.7%. Gross margin is the share of revenue left after the direct cost of making the product. Manufacturing is not where the money goes: selling costs took 80 fen of every yuan of product sales, and R&D spending was 2.3 times total revenue.
The numbers
All figures are in RMB millions unless stated otherwise. The company prepares its accounts under IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) and reports in RMB. US$ figures use the company's June 30, 2026 translation rate of RMB 6.7851 per dollar.
Metric
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H1 2026
H1 2025
YoY Change
Total revenue
302.2
233.7
+29.3%
Product sales
282.4
212.9
+32.6%
Gross margin
96.1%
90.7%
+5.4 pts
Selling & distribution expenses
226.4
137.8
+64.3%
R&D expenses
697.5
528.6
+32.0%
Net loss
(817.0)
(590.8)
-38.3% (loss wider)
Loss per share (basic & diluted, RMB)
(2.19)
(1.73)
-26.6% (loss wider)
Operating cash outflow
(581.2)
(432.1)
+34.5% more cash used
Cash and bank balances (period-end vs Dec 31, 2025)
1,895.6
2,470.1
-23.3%
Loss per ADS was about RMB 8.76, or roughly US$1.29. Revenue also includes RMB 18.7 million of "commercialization rights income" in both years. This is a fixed amount booked each period from an upfront payment received earlier from Innovent, a partner that holds rights to one of Ascentage's drugs in China, so it adds nothing to growth.
What drove the half
Sales: more hospitals, a second drug, fewer eggs in one basket. The company does not break out sales by drug. It does report that olverembatinib is now on the formulary (the approved-drug list) at 879 hospitals and specialist "direct-to-patient" pharmacies, up 12% in a year, and the number of hospitals alone rose 34% to 394. Lisaftoclax reached 415 outlets, 60 of them hospitals, in its first full year on sale. The customer data shows sales spreading beyond one buyer. The largest customer, "Customer A" (the filing does not name it), bought RMB 210.4 million, down from RMB 219.9 million, and fell from 94% of revenue to about 70%. Two other customers crossed the 10%-of-revenue threshold for the first time, at RMB 39.7 million and RMB 31.1 million.
Selling costs: the price of launching lisaftoclax. Selling and distribution expenses rose RMB 88.6 million. The interim report attributes the entire increase to "the commercialization of Lisaftoclax." The sales team is now nearly 300 people and calls on about 1,500 hospitals. Lisaftoclax is not yet on China's National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL), the state insurance list that makes a drug affordable to most patients. Management says it plans to "actively advance" NRDL inclusion in 2026. Olverembatinib's history shows why that matters: its most recent NRDL listing took effect on January 1, 2025, and product sales grew strongly across 2025.
R&D: nine Phase III trials. R&D rose RMB 168.9 million. Most of that came from internal R&D costs, which rose from RMB 217.4 million to RMB 301.4 million, and from "others," which rose from RMB 19.7 million to RMB 54.7 million. The company links the increase to its global clinical trials. Nine registrational Phase III trials are running, the final-stage studies used to seek approval. Four of them have been cleared by both the US FDA and the European Medicines Agency: POLARIS-1 and POLARIS-2 for olverembatinib, and GLORA and GLORA-4 for lisaftoclax. These trials are the route to US and European approval, and that is where most of the cash is going.
What the headline numbers hide
About RMB 69 million of "other expenses" is unrelated to the business, and it was about RMB 40 million a year ago. In H1 2026 this line included a RMB 23.4 million impairment of intangible assets (a write-down of the book value of acquired rights; the filing does not say which asset), a RMB 24.0 million foreign-exchange loss (RMB 2.7 million a year earlier), and RMB 20.7 million of donations (RMB 7.7 million). The comparable one-off in H1 2025 was a RMB 29.3 million fair-value loss on a financial liability, which fell to RMB 0.3 million this year. Net of these items, the underlying loss grew roughly in line with the headline figure. They do not change the picture.
The tax charge is mostly an accounting write-down, not tax paid. Income tax expense was RMB 13.6 million. Of that, RMB 13.58 million was "deferred" tax, reflecting the deferred tax asset (expected future tax savings carried on the balance sheet) shrinking from RMB 32.0 million to RMB 18.4 million. Current tax was RMB 43 thousand.
Cash burn was lower than the loss, partly for a reason that will not repeat. The operating cash outflow of RMB 581.2 million was RMB 236 million smaller than the net loss. Part of the gap comes from non-cash charges: share-based pay of RMB 31.2 million, depreciation and amortization of about RMB 43 million, the impairment and the deferred tax. Part came from working capital. Trade receivables (money owed by customers) fell from RMB 252.9 million at year-end to RMB 156.4 million, releasing cash. Inventory, meanwhile, more than doubled, from RMB 28.6 million to RMB 64.3 million, and the filing does not explain why. Receivables also aged: RMB 30.6 million was more than 45 days old at June 30, compared with none at December 31.
Share-based pay rose sharply. Share option and RSU (restricted stock unit) expense was RMB 31.2 million, up from RMB 13.0 million. In administrative expenses alone it rose from RMB 1.2 million to RMB 13.1 million. The company cites this as the main reason administrative costs rose 19.3%.
The loss per share grew more slowly than the loss only because there are more shares. The weighted average share count rose 9.3% to 373.2 million, mainly because of the January 2025 Nasdaq IPO. That dilution is why the per-share loss widened 26.6% while the total loss widened 38.3%.
The balance sheet is tighter than the cash figure suggests. Borrowings, including leases, totaled RMB 2,094.6 million, which is more than the cash on hand. RMB 1,475.1 million of that is due within a year, mostly short-term unsecured bank loans at about 2.1–2.3% or rates linked to China's benchmark loan prime rate. These loans are being rolled over: the company drew RMB 859.5 million and repaid RMB 747.3 million in the half. Because the loan rates are low, bank interest income (RMB 36.0 million) still exceeded finance costs (RMB 26.8 million). Still, total equity dropped from RMB 1,334.2 million to RMB 565.8 million in six months, and the current ratio (short-term assets divided by short-term liabilities) fell from 1.8 to 1.2. No money was raised from new shares in the period. In July 2026 the company filed an F-3ASR, a US shelf registration that lets it sell shares quickly if it chooses to.
Guidance: The interim report gives no numerical revenue or spending guidance, so there is no earlier forecast to measure against. Management's stated outlook is the qualitative "sustained high-growth momentum in 2026." A half in which product sales were flat against the previous half does not yet show that.
Takeaway: The 29% revenue growth is real, but it compares against a period before the second drug launched. Product sales were flat against H2 2025, while selling costs, R&D and cash burn all grew by about a third or more. Ascentage's financial position now depends on three things arriving before its cash runs low: lisaftoclax reimbursement in China, readouts from its global Phase III trials, and possibly a Takeda licensing decision or new funding.
Outlook
The company's plan for the rest of 2026 is to keep enrolling its POLARIS (olverembatinib) and GLORA (lisaftoclax) Phase III trials, to push for lisaftoclax's NRDL listing, and to begin building a US commercial team under its new Chief Commercial Officer in anticipation of a US approval for lisaftoclax. It also has an outstanding agreement with Takeda, signed in June 2024, giving Takeda an exclusive option to license olverembatinib outside Greater China and Russia. The interim report says only that the two companies "continue to work closely" to implement it. That option matters for funding: the RMB 678.4 million intellectual-property revenue in H1 2024 came from the Takeda deal, which shows how much a single partnering event can change a half's results.
Our read: the second half turns on whether lisaftoclax sales pick up enough to lift total product sales above the roughly RMB 280–290 million per half they have run at for the last two halves (RMB 286.4 million in H2 2025, RMB 282.4 million in H1 2026). An NRDL listing would most likely take effect only from 2027, following the January 1 start date olverembatinib's listing had. Until then, operating cash outflow of about RMB 580 million per half against RMB 1.9 billion of cash, and RMB 1.5 billion of short-term loans that have to keep being rolled over, make new financing or a partnering payment a realistic possibility within the next 12–18 months. The things to watch in the full-year numbers are H2 product sales against RMB 286 million, whether selling expenses keep growing faster than sales, and any change to the short-term loan balance.
This is our first published analysis of Ascentage Pharma, so there is no earlier outlook to check against. Sources: the company's 2026 interim report (Form 6-K, Exhibit 99.1, filed September 17, 2026), its August 19, 2026 interim results press release and HKEX announcement (Form 6-K, filed August 20, 2026), and its FY2025 Form 20-F for the full-year 2025 comparison.