China healthcare

Research evidence excerpt

China healthcare

Global Markets Research

22 June 2026China healthcare

EQUITY: HEALTH CARE & PHARMACEUTICALS

Jun 26 tour takeaways Research Analysts

China Health Care &

PharmaceuticalsFears and inspirations amid AI bonanza Jialin Zhang, CFA, CPA - NIHK

jialin.zhang@nomura.com

During 15-18 Jun, we met representatives of 20 listed companies during our semi-annual +852 2252 6134

healthcare tour to learn about the companies and sector updates – and, more importantly,

to cheer each other up amid current downbeat sentiment that has mainly resulted from

continuous fund outflow to the AI-related theme.

Fears: Anti-corruption campaigns and out-licensing blockade

Besides a broad lack of market interest, the sector itself has seen some rising concerns at

home and abroad recently. Starting with the domestic market. Stricter regulations on

drugs/equipment sales (such as on sales reps visiting physicians or on offline pharmacies

sales) were issued beginning in May, and some corporates we talked to indeed have

witnessed a somewhat adverse impact that has slowed their business recently (though

this was difficult to quantify immediately).

For retail pharmacies that encountered negative publicity regarding medical insurance

fraud, we dropped by two offline stores, one each belonging to one of two listcos, and

found that a hardcopy prescription is indeed required to purchase GLP-1 drugs (the tricky

part is that this can still be easily bypassed, by purchasing the drugs from online

pharmacies, a more important venue than offline pharmacies for GLP-1 drug sales).

All told, we were reminded that the healthcare sector remained a policy-driven and highly

regulated one. Nevertheless, we believe these worries should be short-lived as: (1) sales