[Edaily Reporter Hyera Lee ] ORIENTBIO(002630)announced on the 20th that it expects to benefit from its non-clinical testing (CRO) business as a shortage of primates for research purposes persists due to the expansion of global new drug development.

On the 15th, the company signed an exclusive contract with its affiliate, Orient Cam, for primate CRO services. The strategy is to strengthen the global competitiveness of its preclinical CRO business by combining ORIENTBIO’s preclinical testing capabilities with Orient Cam’s production infrastructure for research primates.
With the recent surge in new drug development—including biopharmaceuticals and gene therapies—demand for research primates is also on the rise. However, since it takes 6 to 7 years for research primates to grow from birth to a stage where they can be used in testing, it is structurally difficult to expand supply in the short term.
According to the Chinese business media outlet First Finance, as China’s pharmaceutical and biotech industries recover, the price of macaques (Philippine macaques) for research purposes—which had fallen below 100,000 yuan per animal at one point—has recently risen to around 200,000 yuan, approaching levels seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ORIENTBIO explained that, given the limited potential for supply expansion, the competitiveness of non-clinical CRO companies with stable production and supply bases is becoming increasingly prominent.
ORIENTBIO plans to leverage OrientCam’s research primate production infrastructure to pursue non-clinical trial business with domestic and international pharmaceutical and biotech companies, as well as research institutions. By integrating a stable primate supply chain with its non-clinical trial capabilities, the company aims to meet diverse research needs while also building an artificial intelligence (AI)-based non-clinical platform utilizing data accumulated during primate non-clinical trials.
An ORIENTBIO official stated, “As the R&D needs of pharmaceutical and biotech companies continue to grow, research primates are gaining attention as a key research resource,” adding, “We will build a next-generation AI bio-platform by integrating our primate supply and non-clinical CRO services with data analysis.”