On March 19th, Imeik Technology Dev (Imeik, SZ:300896), China’s hyaluronic acid titan and a provider of medical aesthetic products, announced its full-year performance for 2023: Revenue increased by 48% year-over-year to 2.87 billion yuan (2022: 1.94 billion yuan), and net profit attributable to the parent company grew by 47% year-over-year to 1.86 billion yuan (2022: 1.26 billion yuan).
By the close of the market on March 20th, the group’s share price had fallen by 3.02% to 342.24 yuan per share, with a total market value of approximately 74 billion yuan, maintaining its position as one of China’s highest-valued beauty enterprises.
In recent years, China’s medical aesthetics market has maintained high growth rates. According to the “2023 China Medical Aesthetics Industry Insight Report,” the Chinese medical aesthetics market is expected to achieve a 20% growth in consumer spending in 2023, with the market expected to maintain an approximate 15% annual compound growth rate over the next four years.
Imeik is one of the earliest domestic companies to engage in the independent research and development and application of biomedical materials for medical aesthetics. The company has successfully achieved the industrialization of a series of skin fillers based on sodium hyaluronate, skin fillers based on polylactic acid, and polydioxanone facial threads, while also developing recombinant proteins and peptides and other biopharmaceuticals.
According to a Frost & Sullivan research report, in the market for skin fillers based on sodium hyaluronate, the company has maintained the number one market share among domestic enterprises for several consecutive years since 2018, holding a clear first-mover advantage and leading position in the medical aesthetics industry.
By the end of 2023, Imeik had more than 400 sales and marketing personnel, covering all 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in the country, reaching approximately 7,000 medical aesthetics institutions. The company adheres to a “direct sales as the main, distribution as supplementary” marketing model, with the revenue proportions of direct sales and distribution models being 62.3% and 37.7%, respectively.
In terms of product categories, in 2023, the company’s solution-type injection products, gel-type injection products, and facial implant threads all achieved year-over-year growth. Among these, gel-type injection products achieved a revenue of 1.16 billion yuan, up 81.4% from the previous year, showing the best performance.
Among gel-type injection products, “cross-linked sodium hyaluronate gel containing L-polylactic acid-ethylene glycol copolymer microspheres” (trade name: Moisten Angel) continued its strong growth momentum, becoming the company’s blockbuster product. “Moisten Angel” is the first domestically produced and world’s first approved skin filler containing L-polylactic acid-ethylene glycol copolymer microspheres.
In 2023, the company continued to ensure investment in R&D innovation, enhancing R&D output through independent research and development and external cooperation. The company’s R&D investment accounted for 8.72% of its revenue, with the R&D investment amount increasing by 44.5% year-over-year. During the reporting period, two key external collaborations were achieved:
- Peptide Biotech: To further strengthen its strategic layout in the fields of weight management and fat reduction, the company invested 50 million yuan to hold a 4.89% equity stake in Beijing Peptide Biomedical Technology Co., Ltd., on top of introducing the Semaglutide product in cooperation with Zpeptide Biotech.
- South Korea’s Jeisys: To expand the company’s product pipeline in the medical aesthetics direction and enrich the categories of dermatological products for medical aesthetics, the company signed a “Distribution Agreement” with South Korea’s Jeisys Medical Inc. Jeisys authorized Imeik to be responsible for the promotion, distribution, sales, and related services of its Density and LinearZ medical aesthetic treatment devices and consumables in the Chinese Mainland (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan), making Imeik the exclusive distributor in the C\hinese Mainland.
| Source: Official financial report
| Image Credit: Imeik Official Website
| Editor: LeZhi
