Chart of the Week – China‘s New Chemical Substance Registrations by CDMOs

Research evidence excerpt

Chart of the Week – China‘s New Chemical Substance Registrations by CDMOs

Update

July 19, 2026 08:15 PM GMT

Morgan Stanley Asia Limited+MChina Healthcare | Asia Pacific Laurence Tam

Equity Analyst

Chart of the Week – China's Laurence.Tam@morganstanley.comMarco Wong +852 2239-1753

Research Associate

Marco.Wong@morganstanley.com +852 3963-2021

New Chemical Substance

Registrations by CDMOs

Key Takeaways China Healthcare

Asia Pacific

The MEE regularly discloses new chemical substance registrations, which Industry View Attractive

companies must obtain before manufacturing a new chemical substance.

In the first 7 months of 2026, the MEE announced 105 new registrations. Of

these, 31 (~30%) were drug intermediates and APIs developed by CDMOs.

Leading CDMO WuXi AppTec led all holders with 19 new registrations, followed

by Asymchem with 7. This is a proxy for their novel-modality pipeline progression.

WuXi AppTec secured these registrations through its small-molecule D&M arm,

WuXi STA, across three sites (Changzhou, Taixing, and Shanghai). Notably, it filed for

multiple long-chain peptide compounds that pertain to GLP-1/peptide-based

therapies. This speaks to both the rising complexity and the rapid pace of innovation

of these novel modalities. In parallel, the global peptide and oligos pipeline

continues to advance; for example, setmelanotide (a targeted melanocortin-4

receptor agonist for acquired hypothalamic obesity developed by Rhythm Pharma)

obtained FDA marketing approval in March 2026. Its Phase 3 trial delivered a least-

squares mean BMI reduction of 16.5% from a mean baseline BMI of 41.2 at week 52,

vs. +3.3% for placebo.

Exhibit 1: China's new chemical Exhibit 2: Selected recent peptide and

substance registrations by company oligonucleotide pipeline developments