Healthcare / Elderly CareChina
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JOURNEY · DETAIL
Zhao Yan of Bloomage BioTech: Real estate developer takes over a loss-making pharmaceutical factory, turns hyaluronic acid raw materials into No. 1 global market share
Founded: Zhao Yan, Guo Xueping (Core Technical Leader) · Bloomage BioTech Co., Ltd.
JOURNEY
Key Fields
FIELD STAMPSIndustryHealthcare / Elderly Care
RegionChina
ScaleGiant
ChannelOther
Origin
Zhao Yan made her first pot of gold in real estate and investment early in her career. Around 2000, through a Peking University classmate, she met Shandong Freda Bio-Chemical—a state-backed enterprise making hyaluronic acid that had been suffering long-term losses and was on the verge of collapse. What caught her eye was not the loss-making financial statements of the time, but the fermentation-based mass-production technology of hyaluronic acid mastered by Guo Xueping's team: hyaluronic acid at the time relied mainly on extraction from cockscombs and was as expensive as gold, whereas fermentation could cut costs by several orders of magnitude. She judged that this material had a huge market in medicine, cosmetics, and food, so she injected capital and took over this loss-making small factory when everyone was pessimistic about it.
Milestones
2001
Taking Over and Entering the Market Turning Point
In 2001, Zhao Yan invested about 12 million yuan to take over the loss-making Freda Bio-Chemical, acquiring a 50% stake and subsequently gaining a controlling interest. At the time, the company suffered consecutive years of losses and could not even pay employee salaries. Outsiders generally could not understand why a female real estate boss would buy an obscure little hyaluronic acid factory. This was the biggest contrarian bet of her career.
2003
Technical Breakthrough PMF
Guo Xueping's team continuously optimized the microbial fermentation process, increasing the hyaluronic acid fermentation yield from a few grams per liter to over 12 grams, significantly reducing production costs and achieving pharmaceutical-grade purity. Around 2007, Bloomage was already the world's largest manufacturer of hyaluronic acid raw materials, obtaining domestic approval qualifications for pharmaceutical-grade injection raw materials, and selling raw materials to international giants such as L'Oreal. The B2B business was the first to run successfully, with this stage lasting from 2003 to 2007.
2012
Moving Downstream to End-Products Growth
In 2012, Bio-MESO (Runbeiyan), the first domestic approved cross-linked hyaluronic acid filler, was launched, breaking the monopoly of imported hyaluronic acid injections. In 2018, the Runbeiyan Palace Museum lipstick went viral, and the company officially transitioned from a behind-the-scenes raw material supplier to a front-stage consumer brand. The functional skincare business gained momentum, forming a three-wheel-driven pattern of raw materials, medical terminals, and skincare products, a stage lasting from 2012 to 2018.
2019
Listing on the STAR Market Growth
On November 6, 2019, Bloomage BioTech was listed on the STAR Market, with its market value surging to 70 billion yuan on its first day of trading. At its peak in 2021, its market value exceeded 140 billion yuan, and Zhao Yan was dubbed the 'Hyaluronic Acid Queen' and the richest woman in Shandong. Revenue in 2020 reached 2.633 billion yuan, and in 2021 it reached 4.948 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 87.93%, with functional skincare becoming the primary growth curve.
2022
Growth Plateau Failure
In 2022, revenue growth slowed to 6.359 billion yuan. In 2023, revenue was 6.076 billion yuan (a year-on-year decrease of 4.45%), and net profit was 593 million yuan (a year-on-year decrease of 38.97%), marking the first dual decline in revenue and profit since listing. Reasons included fierce competition in skincare, high marketing expenses (the sales expense ratio once approached 50%), and stalled growth for brands like Runbeiyan. The capital market began to question the ceiling of the hyaluronic acid narrative, a stage lasting from 2022 to 2023.
2024
Overtaken and Sharp Collapse Failure
In 2024, the company's net profit plummeted by about 70% year-on-year, with net profit after non-recurring gains and losses dropping to just the 100 million yuan level. Meanwhile, Giant Biogene (Comfy, Colgyn), which bet heavily on recombinant collagen, comprehensively surpassed Bloomage BioTech in both revenue and market value. The narrative of holding the throne of global No. 1 in hyaluronic acid raw materials was shattered by the collagen newcomer. In early 2025, Zhao Yan fiercely criticized organizational bloat and corruption issues, announcing a personal return to the front lines to cut away the bone to cure the poison, a stage lasting from 2024 to 2025.
2025
Second Entrepreneurship Turning Point
Zhao Yan promoted organizational streamlining, cut SKUs, contracted marketing deployment, and bet the future on a synthetic biology platform, laying out new raw materials such as collagen, ergothioneine, and ectoine, claiming to ignite a 500-billion-yuan consumer revolution. In 2026, the company's market value hovered around 20 billion yuan. Whether it can transform from a single hyaluronic acid company into a synthetic biology platform has become the second big gamble of Zhao Yan's career, a stage lasting from 2025 to 2026.
Turning Points
- Taking over the chronically loss-making Freda Bio-Chemical in 2001 against everyone else's judgment is the source of the whole story.
- Betting on Guo Xueping's fermentation technology reduced the cost of hyaluronic acid by an order of magnitude, laying the foundation for becoming the world's top raw material supplier.
- The viral success of the Runbeiyan Palace Museum lipstick in 2018 shifted the company from a behind-the-scenes raw material supplier to a front-stage consumer brand, bringing high valuations but also planting hidden dangers of fierce internal competition.
- Giant Biogene's comprehensive overtaking relying on recombinant collagen in 2024 caused the hyaluronic acid narrative to collapse, forcing Zhao Yan to admit the failure of path dependency.
Failures & Pitfalls
- Long-term reliance on a single hyaluronic acid raw material narrative, slow response in the recombinant collagen wave, allowing Giant Biogene to catch up from behind.
- The functional skincare strategy relied heavily on traffic marketing, with the sales expense ratio approaching 50%; once growth stopped, profits immediately collapsed.
- Revenue and profit declined simultaneously in 2023, net profit plummeted by about 70% in 2024, and market value evaporated by more than 80% from its 140 billion peak down to just over 20 billion.
- The organization was accused of being bloated and corrupt; Zhao Yan publicly criticized internal problems in 2025 and announced a personnel cleanup, exposing management out of control during the rapid expansion period.
- The progress of diversified layouts such as the acquired Yikang (collagen) fell short of expectations, missing the window to preemptively stake a claim in collagen using capital.
关键成功要素
- Buying underlying technological assets when no one understood them, exchanging time for technical barriers, and achieving globally leading fermentation yields.
- Reverse-empowering food-grade and cosmetic-grade standards using the high standards of pharmaceutical-grade raw materials, maintaining the world's top raw material market share for years at over 40% globally.
- Step-by-step downward expansion from B2B raw materials to aesthetic medical injections and then to C-end skincare products, with each level amplifying the gross profit margin space.
- Daring to self-revolutionize after listing, acknowledging hyaluronic acid path dependency, and turning to the synthetic biology platform to find a second growth curve.
Lessons
- No matter how deep the technological moat is, it cannot withstand a technological paradigm shift; being No. 1 in raw materials does not mean consumers will only recognize you.
- Shifting from B2B to B2C is both a valuation amplifier and a cash-burning accelerator; after the traffic dividend subsides, the expense ratio will backlash against profits.
- Organizations easily swell and go out of control after founders leave the front lines; returning to the front lines is painful but often the only solution.
- Consumer blockbuster hits (like the Palace Museum lipstick) can ignite growth but cannot mask the approaching ceiling of a product category.
- Disruptors in adjacent tracks (collagen to hyaluronic acid) often complete their overtaking when the giants' profits are at their fattest.
Core Data
- Global Raw Material Market Share：Hyaluronic acid raw material global market share is about 44% (around 2020) (based on public data disclosures, independent review not verified)
- 2021 Revenue：4.948 billion yuan (based on public data disclosures, independent review not verified)
- 2021 Revenue Growth Rate：87.93% (based on public data disclosures, independent review not verified)
- Peak Market Value：Over 140 billion yuan (2021) (based on public data disclosures, independent review not verified)
- Trough Market Value：About 217 million yuan / approximately 21.7 billion yuan (around 2026) (based on public data disclosures, independent review not verified)
- 2023 Net Profit Decline：38.97% (based on public data disclosures, independent review not verified)
- 2024 Net Profit Decline：About 70% (based on public data disclosures, independent review not verified)
- Acquisition Cost：About 12 million yuan capital injection (2001) (based on public data disclosures, independent review not verified)
Competitors / Peers
The most direct competitor is Giant Biogene: relying on recombinant collagen brands like Comfy and Colgyn, it surpassed Bloomage BioTech in both revenue and market value in 2024, being regarded as the new-generation raw material narrative taking over from hyaluronic acid. Next is IMEIK, which occupies the high-profit market of aesthetic medical filling injections with products like Hya-Youth (Regenovue/Hyamed/etc., contextually 'Hantai/Haiti'), maintaining a persistently strong market value. On the raw material side, there is Freda (state-backed, split from the original Freda system) competing closely in the domestic raw material market. On the international front, it benchmarks against the synthetic biology layouts of ingredient giants like Shiseido and DSM. Bloomage's predicament is: being chased on the raw material side, suppressed by Giant in the brand category, and squeezed by IMEIK in the injection category, fighting a three-front war.
Sources
- https://www.36kr.com/p/3453714805282179
- https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2025-06-09/doc-inezmmiq6903188.shtml
- https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20250317A04Z7200
- https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20250906A04PF500
- https://finance.sina.com.cn/wm/2026-03-15/doc-inhqzqsc0159187.shtml
- https://36kr.com/p/1502587517074048
- https://36kr.com/p/3624872893039874