The first three quarters of biotech companies' financial reports are coming out, and the impact of the epidemic, inflation and the strengthening of the US dollar has caused a major reshuffle in the profit rankings. Optical, medical material export stocks, pharmaceuticals and health care products groups performed the best, with TaiDoc sitting firmly on the profitability throne with EPS of NT$31.95; St.Shine Technology and Pegavision grabbed the lead in contact lenses, with EPS starting at NT$16; Lotus Pharma and Bora Pharmaceuticals competed for the pharmaceutical king; beauty and health care products stocks were won by Syngen Biotech.

The most complete performance of the optical stocks was achieved by St.Shine Technology, Pegavision, Brighten Optix, Universal Vision Biotechnology and Visco Vision, which will be listed on the 28th of this month, all in the top 10 list, with EPS of over NT$7.5. The difference is only NT$0.5, while the third quarter EPS of Pegavision is NT$6.02, better than St.Shine's NT$5.99. It is also a matter of concern whether the king of optical stocks will be replaced in the fourth quarter.

Among the pharmaceutical stocks, Lotus Pharma benefited from the successful launch of its blood cancer drug Lenalidomide in the US, driving its September revenue to $3.349 billion, up 236% month-on-month and 231% year-on-year, while single-quarter revenue rose 85% quarter-on-quarter and gross margin rose sharply to 67.9%, pushing profit up nearly five times quarter-on-quarter. 

Bora Pharmaceuticals's third quarter revenue of NT$2.712 billion has already surpassed the total of the first half of this year, and the company's EPS has already reached NT$6.12 in the first half of the year, so it is estimated that the third quarter EPS is expected to earn more than half of the equity, and the first three quarters EPS will be more than NT$10, so it will continue to compete with Lotus Pharma. 

In addition, the fire in May last year, which affected four plants of SYN-TECH CHEM. & PHARM., with the main product muscle relaxants, local anaesthetics, topical agents and digestive system agents transfer capacity utilization gradually restored, coupled with the foreign exchange earnings, the third quarter EPS to 3.53 yuan to earn more than the first half of the total, cumulative first three quarter after-tax net profit of 271 million yuan, an annual increase of 165%, EPS 6.1 yuan.

Among the medical material export stocks, TaiDoc, the best representative of epidemic prevention, benefited from the big sales of COVID-19 fast screening test, driving its operating profit to reach NT$3.655 billion in the first three quarters, an annual increase of 99.8%, nearly doubling its growth.

Gene Reach, however, with the epidemic slowing down and the demand for testing-related products stabilising, EPS shrank to NT$0.8 in the third quarter. The current performance of vaccines, vaccines and masks for epidemic prevention has cooled down, and the industry is unlikely to see its past peak again.