Mirxes records $58.7m operating losses and $24.2m revenue in lead up to HK listing

Singapore biotech firm Mirxes reported a 36.2% year-on-year revenue growth to US$24.2 million in 2023, according to its April filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This comes ahead of the company’s anticipated IPO in Hong Kong within the next six months.

However, total losses for the year reached US$70.4 million – a 21.8% jump from 2022. Its operating losses, meanwhile, increased 24.4% to US$58.7 million.

Photo credit: Mirxes

According to the filing, Mirxes attributed the increased losses primarily to higher spending on research and development, which grew 22.3% year on year, to US$22.6 million. A 20% jump in general and administrative expenses also contributed to the higher losses.

Meanwhile, its cash and cash equivalents declined in 2023 to US$14 million from US$19.8 million the year before.

The firm announced its intention to list in Hong Kong last July. In an email interview with Tech in Asia, the company says that an IPO is “a routine fundraising event for biotech companies” and is “not an exit event.”

The company’s latest prospectus also indicates that Mirxes took out a loan for US$25 million in April 2024 and received loans of S$1 million (US$740,000) and US$2 million from co-founder and CEO Zhou Lihan in March 2024.

Responding to inquiries from Tech in Asia, the company says that it chose to take out short-term loans to speed up its path to an IPO.

Mirxes also reported a decrease in total assets and higher liabilities for 2023. However, current assets still exceeded current liabilities in 2023, a pattern that continued to 2024 as of the end of February.

Considering this, Mirxes says that its directors believe that the company has enough working capital to cover at least 125% of its costs for at least the next 12 months from the April filing.

Shuffling revenue mix

Mirxes develops test kits for the early detection of cancer and other diseases. It was spun out of Singapore’s Agency of Science, Technology, and Research in 2014 to commercialize its products and make them more accessible.

Approximately 72% of the company’s revenue is generated from its early detection and precision multi-omics segment, which consists of the GastroClear and LungClear products. The former remains Mirxes’ core product, which is used to detect gastric cancer early.

The company has raised about US$167 million in disclosed funding to date, according to Tech in Asia data. In 2022, it participated in the US$4.5 million funding round of Vietnamese healthtech startup Med247.

Last year, Mirxes indicated its interest in a separate listing in Singapore but still opted to list in Hong Kong first to have a better “fighting chance.”

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