Today, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to GenScript Biotech 2025 interim results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star one and one on your telephone keypad. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I will now like to hand the conference over to our first speaker today, CFO, Josie Zhou. Please go ahead.
Hello everyone, this is Josie Zhou, Interim CFO at GenScript Biotech Corporation. Welcome to our 2025 interim results conference call. Joining us on the call today are Mr. Robin Meng, Chairman of the Board; Mr. Ray Chen, Rotating CEO of GenScript Biotech Corporation; Dr. Ray Chen, President of GenScript Life Science Group; Dr. Aixi Bai, General Manager of Bestzyme; and Mr. Allen Guo, CEO of ProBio Technology. During today's call, we will be making statements about future expectations, plans, and prospects, as well as any other statements regarding matters that are not historical facts, which may be considered forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements because of various important risk factors and changing market conditions. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements.
Today, Shiniu will start with the company overview, and our business head will present the first half highlights for each segment. I will then guide you through the financial performance. Following that, Sherry will update our four-year guidance and the second half business focus. We also have a Q&A section at the end of the call. As a reminder, today's presentation materials can be accessed in the investor relations section of the company website. Now, I wish to hand over to Sherry.
Thank you, Josie, and thanks to everyone for your ongoing support for GenScript Group. In the first half, GenScript Group delivered rapid growth despite the complex geopolitical environment. The group's revenue grew about 82% year over year. The adjusted profit from continuing operations grew significantly to approximately $180 million. Turning to each segment, our GenScript Life Science business continues to deliver steady growth. Excluding the impact of the collaboration with Lenovo, ProBio biologics CDMO business reported a return to revenue growth after the industry headwind. Bestzyme, our industrial synthetic biology segment, continued its industry-leading growth trajectory. For our associate company, Legend Biotech, its best-in-class CAR-T product, CARVYKTI, has treated over 7,500 patients. In the second quarter, CARVYKTI made three sales grow 136% to $439 million, making it the strongest CAR-T launch to date. In the U.S., more than half of its utilization is in the earlier line setting.
Legend anticipates achieving operational break-even for CARVYKTI by the end of 2025 and company-wide profitability by 2026, excluding unrealized foreign exchange gains or losses. We believe Legend's improved financial performance will benefit the group's profitability in the long run. By the end of the first half, GenScript Group had a global workforce of over 5,700 members. Our global footprint is expanding rapidly. Due to automation and digitalization, our manufacturing-related employees have decreased. However, we have expanded our R&D teams to enhance our leading position in the industry. As of the first half, the group's cash position grew to $970 million, funding our global expansion, R&D progress, and capacity ramp up. Before we dive into the business part, let me share an update on our impressive sustainability achievements. In recent years, ESG has emerged as the gold standard for global corporate competitiveness.
In the first half, our significant breakthroughs across global ESG ratings brought us to a leading position, including the Silver Medal from EcoVadis, the MSCI ESG rating upgraded to AA, Standard & Poor's Global CSA score elevated to the industry top 7%, and inclusion in the FTSE4Good Index Series. As a result of years of strategic investment and continuous improvement, these achievements highlight our ability to meet the evolving expectations of our clients and investors. We are also broadening our reach within the global sustainability community by being part of the United Nations Global Compact and the Science-Based Targets Initiative , and a supplier partner of the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative . In our operations, our ESG practices have contributed to financial savings through improved operational efficiency.
Our strong ESG performance has resonated positively with our stakeholders by helping our clients meet their goals and driving value creation for shareholders. Among others, I'd like to highlight data security as part of our governance practices. All of our 16 global operating entities have been certified to ISO 27001 for information security, ensuring the highest international standards in data security and IP protection. As we look ahead, we remain dedicated to advancing our ESG initiatives, further strengthening our competitive edge, and contributing to a more sustainable future. Now, I would like to invite leaders from each segment to present the highlights from the first half of the year. We will begin with Dr. Ray Chen from the GenScript Life Science Group.
Thank you, Sherry. This is Ray and Ray Chen. Let's go to the slide number six. On August 8th this year, which is our 23rd anniversary, we celebrated a pivotal moment with a successful recent launch of our global brand. This strategic investment fosters a vision of progression. It is a dual vision of who we are and how we lead in the industry, defined by rapid change and intensifying competition. It underscores our commitment to market leadership, differentiation, and innovation. Our customers told us clearly that GenScript is more than a service provider. We are enablers of discovery, co-authors of processes, and trusted partners in possibility. We are very proud to confirm our net promoter score in the industry, validated by a recent robust global study of 660 diverse and influential respondents across the life science. Our platform lives through the deep systematic philosophy, shaping possibilities.
It captures and empowers our scientists and partners worldwide to turn possibilities into realities, accelerating innovations and development every single day. For our customers, this means a more intuitive, human-centered experience. For our teams, it is a badge of pride and cherish. This brand relaunch likely positions us to capture dynamic opportunities, expand our improvement, and drive sustainable long-term value in an increasingly competitive biotech ecosystem. We are privileged to serve a global team of over 42,000 customers in the first half of this year, delivering high-quality services and products for specific progresses. More than 112,000 citations in leading journals cite us. GenScript's impact and credibility are undeniable. This achievement validates our leadership and inspires us to relentlessly move forward, shaping possibilities together with our customers, driving industry-leading innovations that shape the future of science and healthcare. At GenScript, integrating for the plan is not just a technical advancement.
It is our competitive soul. By uniting the world's number one gene with protein, mRNA, and cell and gene engineering, we deliver solutions that no single platform competitor can match. This allows us to win on both speed and score, and the market response is very clear. In modern drug discovery, speed is everything, and we set the pace. Our flash gene delivers sequence to plasmid in four business days. Our TurboCHO moves sequence to antibody in just five business days. These timelines up the cycle for our customers up to 50% faster than competitors. This is essential for us and biotech innovators. Second, importantly, we've excellent complex constructs, bispecific, multispecific. Those are the areas where many stumble, but GenScript consistently delivers. Our end-to-end fully integrated gene-to-antibody, gene-to-protein, tick expression secures every logic and long loyalty, especially in high-stakes projects.
The number of protein services revenue grew 52% in the first half of 2025, now approximately representing 30% of our Life Science Group. The TurboCHO high-throughput platform now fulfills our needs from leading AI drug discovery, including extra bispecific and multispecific antibodies. GenScript is not just a differentiator, it's a repeatable, scalable model. It bends our total model, allowing us to penetrate both outsourcing and in-house markets and fulfill sustainable revenue growth. In the first half of 2025, the customers who outsource our TurboCHO delivered 46% more this year. For the customers who produce protein in-house, we supplied 40% more gene items year over year. Also, our MX instruments are increasingly embedded in our customers' labs. We installed 164 controllers and 280 modules globally, including 17 out of the top 20 pharma core facilities. We are expanding further.
The launch of the cell-free expression kit and the upcoming TurboCHO expression kit will be a high-performance platform directly in our customers' labs worldwide. We have higher production, faster turning time, and ultimately at half of the current cost of our customers. This will further expand our objective to drive high-margin product revenue and redefine how protein expression is done in-house or outsourced. Moreover, in the cell and gene engineering field, while others are done with accessory aggregates, we're the first to integrate the full workflow from genes to plasmid, i.e., mRNA, up to epi, and inhibitory mRNA in just three weeks, including cell and cell-specified anti-RNA. Our GeneQuest solution supported 18 different approvals across FDA, NMPA, and EMA, delivering industry-pioneer brand capabilities. GenScript has become the partner of the spot for innovators pushing the boundaries of cell and gene therapy, driving cutting-edge scientific advancements today and tomorrow.
This is the power of our proprietary platform synergy, providing unmatched speed, multimodal breadth, and flawless technical execution, translating directly into the market share gains, larger addressable markets, and accelerating revenue. Of course, in today's volatile environment, dependable supply is highly, highly demanded. It's a competitive advantage of GenScript. Our all-weather strategy is to build on the adaptability of resilience to navigate economic and geopolitical shifts. Sustainable growth through flexible production and operations thrives across turbulent times and diverse economic climates. Over the recent years, we have strategically diversified our global production across key regions to guarantee the speed, reliability, and consistent delivery worldwide. By the end of 2025, four out of our major productions will run at fully automated, AI-driven lights-out facilities, providing 24/7 outputs with minimal human interventions, with robots, AI scheduling, and real-time quality control. We will also achieve 60% cost reduction in our U.S.
molecular biology facility this year. By the end of the year of 2026, AI-powered full automation will cover 60% of our strategic services, faster runs, greater accuracy, and stronger resilience. Diversification drives flexibility. Automation powers the operational apps. Together, they will forge an all-weather supply chain that transforms volatility into strength and discipline, volatility into turbulence, into sustainable marketing initiatives. This is our commitment and our goal. That will wrap up my updates on the GenScript Life Science Group business. Now I will turn it over to Allen, CEO of ProBio.
Thank you, Ray. Hello everyone. I'm Allen, CEO of ProBio. Now let's turn to page nine. I'm delighted to share ProBio's first half highlights. We are excited to witness a recovery after navigating the industry headwind over the past two years. In the first half, through platform innovation, timeline optimization, and quality system enhancement, our antibody and protein and CGT CDMO benefits have achieved a number of milestones. Our discovery benefits: we wrote our services tailored to industry trends. For example, one of the challenges in developing TCR-related therapies is the low affinity between targeted TCRs and the peptide MHC on tumor cells, which hampers target identification. To address this challenge, we have developed a TCR platform that integrates affinity maturation, in vitro functional characterization, and in vivo pharmacological evaluation. In terms of antibody and protein CMC services, we developed a new expression vector, PoolMax, featuring exceptional productivity and stability.
With this, we launched an industry-leading express CMC service, which shortens the timeline from gene synthesis to toxpath delivery from six months to four months, significantly boosting the efficiency of new drug development. Notably, we delivered the first PD2 project in the first half. The BLA is expected to be submitted in the second half, which marks our first non-COVID BLA project. Through collaboration with global pharma, we have upgraded our data integrity system to meet regulatory requirements from FDA, EMA, and NMPA. In the CGT benefits, we launched the PowerS DNA stream, which enhances the yield of DNA drugs and vaccines to three grams later. We have also shortened the timeline for GMP principal and GMP grade plasmids, which will expedite the development of new drugs in this area.
On viral vectors, our upgraded AAV CMC platform is equipped with a streamlined process development module, reducing the overall CMC cost by 30%. On lentivirus, we completed our first pre-approval inspection from the South Korean MFDS, with expected approval by the end of 2025. In response to increasing demand for in vivo quality development this year, we have developed antibody retargeted LVV and LNT platforms with our patented CD3 and CD7 reagents, for which QC studies have been completed. On the CMC platform, we have delivered two IND projects for in vivo quality therapies based on LVV platform and have one ongoing CMC project for LNT platform. We anticipate in vivo quality-related services will drive CGT CDMO benefits growth in the coming year. On ProBio antibody and protein CDMO benefits, we continue to accumulate our track record.
We added 20 antibody and protein CDMO projects in the first half, with 50% from outside of China. We helped the client obtain nine new R&D approvals. Notably, we successfully delivered clinical batches to two multinational pharma companies, marking a significant breakthrough for our benefits. Since two years of dedication to platform upgrade, we have observed a substantial increase in projects involving bispecific, multispecific antibodies and complex proteins, reflecting clients' trust in our technology and platform. On CGT CDMO benefits, we added 30 new CGT CDMO projects, including an integrated in vivo quality CMC project covering reagents, mRNA, LNP, and conjugation. We also signed two pivotal clinical projects, one of which was transferred from another CDMO to ProBio. Regarding approvals, we helped the client secure nine new R&D approvals in the first half, including one AAV project and two mRNA-LNP projects.
These challenging integrated projects are a testament to our capability. Additionally, we successfully delivered several GMP virus batches to a top multinational pharma. Moreover, we assisted one customer to successfully license out their cell therapy project in the first half. In terms of capacity, along with industry recovery, our antibody and protein CDMO facility in Zhejiang is now at full occupation. We are now expanding new capacity in Zhejiang, and it will be fully operational by early 2026 to better support global clients and late-stage projects. For CGT, we will focus on capacity expansion for our Hopewell facility in the U.S. In the first half, we launched the GMP plasmid production, and we have already successfully delivered multiple GMP principal orders. For viral vectors, we have launched AAV service in August and have already received our first AAV CMC order from a U.S. client.
In the first half, we received upfront payment from Lenovo, and on March Q2 earnings call, the company disclosed that the LM-299 technology transfer was completed in July and expects to recognize a milestone payment of $300 million associated with the technology transfer in Q3. Merck also confirmed that the LM-299 project is progressing smoothly. On our agreements with Lenovo, ProBio is entitled to 25% of a technology transfer milestone payment from Merck. As part of our future revenue streams, we have strengthened investments in R&D projects. To date, we have accumulated 16 all-licensing projects, four of which have entered clinical stages. Depending on partners' research, funding, and R&D efficiency requirements, we offer flexible collaboration models, including fee-for-service, co-development, asset buyout, and licensing out. Currently, we have over 30 pre-developed projects with high-value targets.
Notably, our proprietary CD3 reagents and CD3 TCE pipeline feature innovative constructs, better developability, and improved efficiency, efficacy, and safety, primarily targeting cancer, with potential application in autoimmune disease as well. We are now engaging several multinational pharma companies on molecule licensing out now. Potential collaboration might be achieved by the end of 2025 or early 2026. Now, I'll hand it over to Dr. Aixi Bai, General Manager of Bestzyme.
Thank you, Allen. Hello everyone. This is Aixi Bai. We are at slide 13 right now. Bestzyme maintained the industry leading growth in the first half. However, due to the holiday season in China, the overall enzyme industry experienced slower growth in the first half. We expect a strong recovery in the second half. Thanks to our significant investment in R&D, Bestzyme's patent-powered portfolio is outpacing the industry. Three out of our five top-selling enzyme products showed sustained growth, and we've seen a steady increase in purchasing from key accounts as well. Our innovative detergent enzyme launched in 2023, growing at a 58% CAGR over the past three and a half years' period, now ranks among our top 10 best-selling enzyme products. We are optimistic about its continued rapid growth in the coming years.
In the first half, we optimized two new superacid resistant amylases, enabling the same efficiency with 13% less enzyme dosage. In downstream alcohol applications, adding our superacid resistant amylases can reduce the usage of acids and alkylates by over 75%. In the synthetic biology pipeline, our sweet protein has secured the FDA GRAS standards, and we continuously optimize production, product performance, and cost structure. In the second half, we will start the construction of a 5,000 sq m s commercial manufacturing facility for sweet protein, targeting completion in 2026. As you may have noticed from our financials, Bestzyme's R&D expenses grew about 62% year-over-y ear. Now, I'd like to show you how we use this money. Our current R&D focus is on two areas. First, we're expanding our R&D teams in enzyme and synthetic biology products to accelerate product innovation. Another focus is on early-stage strain screening.
We aim to boost our strain screening throughput by roughly 153% by year end, which is vital for accelerating new product development. Also, we're increasing small-scale fermentation throughput to boost process development efficiency. We launched three new amylases for green processing this year. In the second half, we will upgrade our new fatty and our new proteins for animal nutrition. Going forward, we will focus on improving efficiency, supporting environment-friendly applications, and offering comprehensive enzyme solutions to our clients. Next, I'll hand it over to Josie to introduce the group's financials.
Thank you, Dr. Bai. Now let's move to slide 16. I will introduce the group and each segment's performance in the first half of 2025. Since Legend Biotech was de-consolidated from the group, the revenue figures are mentioned below. We exclude Legend's revenue for 2025. In the first half, the group's revenue increased by 81.9% year over year to about $519 million. All three segments achieved growth. Among them, GenScript Life Science Group grew by 11.3% to about $248 million. ProBio grew by 511% to around $247 million, and Bestzyme grew by 8.4% to $28.3 million. The adjusted profit from continued operation grew significantly to about $178 million. At the group level, the net loss was about $24.5 million, which was also significantly narrowed compared to the same period last year.
The loss in this period was largely affected by Legend Biotech, mainly from two parts: Legend's current period loss and the amortization impact of $3.2 billion valuation increase when it was de-consolidated in 2024. Legend Biotech's current period loss was mainly caused by non-operating fully exchanged gains and losses. In the second quarter of this year, Legend Biotech achieved adjusted profit. For more details on Legend's first half performance, please refer to Legend's relevant performance release. With Legend anticipating achieving operation break-even for CARVYKTI by the end of 2025 and the company-wide profitability in 2026, we believe Legend will be a sustainable growth driver for the group's profitability in the long run. Now let's move to the performance of each segment. In the first half, GenScript Life Science Group's revenue was nearly $248 million, an increase of 11.3% year over year.
Based on recent market trends and the seasonal volatility, we anticipated stronger growth in the second half. From the perspective of revenue compensation, the proportion of protein and antibody business in total revenue is rising rapidly, and it now accounts for more than 30% of total revenue. Revenue from industry customers, particularly pharma customers, further increased, largely due to the development of more MNC companies. The adjusted gross profit of Life Science Group rose 5.3% year-over- year to around $126 million. The adjusted gross margin was about 51%, which was slight compared to the second half of 2024. Expense-wise, there were no significant fluctuations. The rise in selling expenses was primarily due to our global sales strategy. R&D expense accounts for roughly 9% of revenue. Overall, adjusted operating profit was $46.4 million. Gross margin has been temporarily impacted by a change in product mix.
Global capacity expansion was suggested in the past two years. We anticipate margin resilience to be driven by both smart investments. Through enhanced automation, expanded capacity, and elevated global productivity, margin on check will improve. ProBio revenue reached about $247 million, with fee-for-service revenue showing double-digit growth. We are excited to see that ProBio has returned to revenue growth after two challenging years, with continued order recovery throughout 2025. For fee-for-service, the share of revenue from antibody and protein and CGT services has no significant change compared to the previous reporting period. By region, revenue from the Americas and the European markets are growing thanks to the successful execution of our global market strategy. ProBio's adjusted gross profit came in at around $182 million. The adjusted EBITDA stood at $164 million. The fee-for-service margin was impacted by capacity ramp-up.
Excluding the impact of new capacity in the first half, the margin was flat compared to the corresponding period. Expense-wise, I will highlight there was a significant rise in the administration expenses, largely due to our new capacity facility in Hopewell, U.S. As the facility was not yet fully operational in the first half, the associated startup costs have been booked under administration expenses. We anticipated these costs will be booked to cost of goods sold in the second half once the facility is fully operational. With the cash position of $371 million, ProBio is well positioned to execute its business plan. Additionally, we are on track to receive a milestone payment from Lenovo in the second half of this year. Bestzyme's revenue reached $28.3 million, representing an increase of 8.4% year-over-year growth and nearly 10% growth in constant currency.
The adjusted gross profit was $11.4 million, while the adjusted operating loss was $0.6 million. Revenue growth in the first half was primarily impacted by the Chinese New Year holiday season. We anticipate a strong rebound in the growth in the second half. The gross margin for industry enzymes and feed enzymes has experienced some fluctuation due to the market change. We are confident about further improvement in gross margin driven by high-margin products and cost optimization. By region, driven by our global strategy, Bestzyme's explicit China revenue proportion grew to 23%. Increasing revenue from international customers will contribute to and improve the margin. On the expense side, our investment in R&D and the sales team expansion across regions led to a significant increase. As Dr. Bai highlighted earlier, these investments are essential for building our core competences. I will conclude my financial updates here.
Our CEO Shiniu Wei will take you through the four-year guidance and our business focus for the second half of 2025.
Thank you, Josie. The slide page 31 shows our guidance for each segment. For GenScript Life Science business, we are revising four-year revenue growth outlook to 13%- 15%, driven by strong demand momentum and deeper penetration into strategic markets. We are maintaining a flat adjusted gross profit despite growth investments, so we can scale without margin erosion. We expect an adjusted operating profit margin around 18%, reflecting disciplined cost management and ongoing efficiency gains. For ProBio, excluding the impact of the Lenovo collaboration, we maintain our revenue guidance. We also expect to recognize a new milestone payment in the second half. For Bestzyme, we anticipate faster growth in the second half due to seasonal factors. As a result, we maintain our guidance about revenue and gross profit rate. To conclude the presentation, I will highlight our business outlook for the group and each segment.
Building on our successful global brand relaunch, GenScript business is well positioned for the next growth phase. By leveraging integrated proprietary platforms as key differentiators, we will expand market penetration for protein, mRNA, and cell and gene engineering. To support in-house R&D needs, we are accelerating portfolio transformation by launching ready-to-use kits and other life science reagents, consumables, and instruments. Leveraging newly launched capacity and capabilities at our Hopewell facility, ProBio will intensify its market penetration for CGT in the U.S. market. We are committed to continuously advancing our CDMO platforms to ensure cutting-edge service offerings. Concurrently, we are making substantial investments in the development of NMEs. We aim to identify and advance promising drug candidates, ultimately seeking out licensing opportunities to unlock their full therapeutic and commercial value. On Bestzyme, we will continue to reinforce our competitive advantage through patent applications and IP protection, supporting further international market penetration.
In terms of capacity, we will expedite commercial manufacturing capacity for sweet protein, paving the way for its market launch. By leveraging synergy across business lines within each segment, we are able to deliver unique value to our clients with faster speed and superior quality. The group also drives synergy across the three business segments to address customer demand and redefine the industry landscape. On top of that, globalization, automation, and digital transformation are also key priorities for our three segments in the dynamic and ever-evolving environment. That wraps up today's presentation. Operator, please open the floor for Q&A.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by as we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Linhai Zhao from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Thanks for this opportunity for my questions. This is Linh ai from Goldman Sachs. I have two questions. The first one is for ProBio. Based on the presentation deck, it seems thaHua fromt the fee for service in the first half decreased year over year, while the cost of $66 million is also higher. Can you share a bit more on the underlying reasons and how should we look at the recovery trajectory in the second half and beyond, given that we are seeing increasing orders? That's the first question. The second question is for Bestzyme. Understood that the impact from seasonality in the first half generated some headwinds. Can you also elaborate a bit more on the product breakdown? The presentation showed that innovative enzymes show strong growth, while the top five enzymes are not all growing on a year-over-year basis.
Any colors on the breakdowns and how we should look at the growth in the second half would be appreciated. Thanks.
Thank you for your question. For the first one about ProBio, we have to celebrate the revenue from the Lenovo case and to elaborate the first one. As previous announcements, as of the end of June, we have received a total upfront payment of $213.8 million under the Lenovo license agreement, of which $213.4 million was received in the first half of the year. Due to certain pending matters, we recognize revenue about $200 million in the first half of the year based on the principle of production. Excluding this impact, our fee-for-service business achieved a two-digit growth. The cost of our fee-for-service has been impacted by the capacity ramp-up. Excluding the impact of new capacity, the margin in the first half was flat compared to the corresponding period.
For the second half of the year, we anticipate that the gross profit will be flat compared to the first half of the year. We are on track about ProBio's cost of sales for the fee-for-service. For the second question about Bestzyme, as mentioned, the first half-year revenue increase was primarily impacted by Chinese New Year holiday season. For the breakdown of the business, we noticed that there's no significant change for the industrial enzyme and the feed enzyme. For the second half of the year, we're expecting a stronger rebound. Our General Manager of Bestzyme, Dr. Aixi Bai, will share with you the business plan for the next half of the next half year. Dr. Bai, can you share the?
Sure.
Thank you.
Yeah, sure. First, thank you, Linh ai, for the question related to Bestzyme. Looking ahead to the second half for both industrial enzymes and feed enzymes, we have already launched and we will launch new products, including RNases, phytases, and proteases. These three enzymes are best in class, right? We have confidence that these enzymes will help us get more revenue in the second half. Additionally, our sales personnel now in India have been fully deployed. We will promote these products in India, in the U.S., and China. That's why we expect better growth in the second half of this year. Thank you, Linhai . Linh ai, thank you, Linh ai.
Thank you.
Thanks. Just a quick follow-up on the first question. Thanks, Josie, for the answer. May I try to understand a bit more? Since you mentioned that after the breakdown, the fee for service actually has a double-digit growth for the second first half. Is that what I'm hearing right?
Yes. For the first half of the year, the revenue from fee for service will achieve the double-digit growth.
Okay.
Because the revenue from Lenovo, we recognize it's around $200 million due to some uncertain matters. We just recognize around $200 million in the first half. Yeah.
Okay. Got it. Thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you. Just a moment for our next question, please. Next, we have Yang Huang from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. This is Yang from JPMorgan. I have two questions. The first one is, it's nice to see the company has received the first upfront payment. Also, in the second half, the company is going to receive another part of the technology transfer fee. Does management have any kind of color on future milestone payments, like how much and around what time we could see further potential milestone payments from this deal? That's my first question. The second one is, given all the segments of the company continue to see global expansion, does the company have any kind of vision in terms of long-term revenue contribution from outside China? Will continued expansion ex-China affect kind of long-term margin? I would like to have some color on that. Thanks.
Okay. Thank you for your question. For the first question about Lenovo, Allen, please help to answer.
Okay. Thank you, Yang, for the question. Generally speaking, based on the second quarter earnings call of Merck, they have disclosed that a debt transfer milestone has been reached, right? Generally speaking, it's expected to recognize a milestone payment of $300 million for this milestone hit. From this point of view, we shall be entitled to receive 25% of this milestone in the second half. In the meanwhile, the clinical trial is still ongoing. Depending on the progress of the clinical trial, some further milestone payments will be reached. ProBio is also entitled to receive 25% of those following milestone payments. However, since there are some uncertainties on those clinical trials, we do not have a very clear milestone timeline right now. I think, generally speaking, Merck has already mentioned that so far the clinical trial is progressing smoothly. Let's follow on the progress of Merck clinical trial. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Allen. For the second question about the capacity in the global, this is really a very good question. Depending on the supplier globally, it's what we are committed to build for our global customers. This is our greater competitive advantage. No matter from China, Singapore, Europe, or U.S., we always wanted to be close to our customers, providing guaranteed speed, reliability, and consistent delivery worldwide. This robust global and local will keep providing flexibility and resilience for our customers. We will fully leverage this advantage of each product's, each production capacity to achieve sustainable business growth. Meanwhile, we continue to reduce costs through R&D-driven innovations, AI-powered automation, digitalization, and lean operations. We have always achieved continued improvement in gross profit margins, especially in life science, U.S., and Singapore business.
We will be confident in strong growth and healthy profitability, both short-term and long-term, through this kind of strategy. Yeah. Thank you for your question again.
I got it. Thanks.
Thank you. Next, we have Daisy Cheng from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thanks, management, for taking my questions. This is Daisy from Morgan Stanley. I have two questions here. The first one is about the tariffs. We understand that GenScript has limited late-stage exposure requiring direct cross-border drug product transportation as of now and has a globalization expansion plan on the way. Given the increasingly complicated global supply chain dynamics, could management help us to quantify a bit what's our current direct China to U.S. food shipping exposure by revenue percentage? Do we have any hedge plan on the way? Thanks. This is the first question.
Okay. For this question, Shiniu Wei wi ll give you an answer.
Thanks for Daisy's question. Just as you mentioned, in the first half of 2025, tariffs had a low impact on our profit due to the nature of our business, less than $4 million. Over the past few years, the proportion of our global capacity has steadily increased across the life-science business and ProBio. Bestzyme had a small presence in the U.S., so tariffs posed no significant strain. Overall, thanks to our global business footprint, we are confident in our ability to navigate policy fluctuations.
Okay, thank you.
Okay. Thank you, Sherry. My second question is about ProBio order trends. I noticed that ProBio obtained $71 million new orders in the second half of 2024, which achieved a double-digit half-on-half growth. What's the current backlog and new order trends for ProBio in the first half of 2025? Any update here?
Yeah. Thank you for your question. Our ProBio CEO, Allen Guo, will have to explain this. Allen.
Thank you for the question, Daisy. Generally speaking, we have observed steady growth for 2025. By July, we achieved 9% year-over-year growth for all fee-for-service orders. Generally speaking, we observed a clear recovery for antibody and protein R&D ever since the second half of last year. For the discovery units, we achieved around 20% year-over-year growth. For the CMC part, we also achieved significant growth in terms of project numbers. However, since we signed a big late-stage project in the same period last year, for value-wise, we achieved about single-digit year-over-year growth so far. For the CGT segment, as you know, there's still headwinds globally. Due to our continuous efforts and also relentless upgrade of our CGT platform, we actually achieved more than 20% year-over-year growth for viral vectors. Unfortunately, for the plasmids, we are still facing very strong price competition. So far this year, it's a negative single-digit growth.
In the meanwhile, I think that this year, there's a fast-growing interest in developing in vivo CAR-T. At ProBio, we do have incapacitated capabilities and also platform for lentivirus, for mRNA, and also VHX. We believe this increasing demand for in vivo CAR-T will support our following CGT business growth definitely. In terms of backlog, since it varies based on clients' plan of the project, and sometimes clients will change the scope and simply cancel the project, we do not disclose any backlog information anymore. We will pay more attention to active backlog for internal resource and also capacity deployment. Thank you.
Thank you, Daisy Cheng.
Okay. Thanks for the answer. Yeah, very clear. No more from my end.
Thank you. Just a moment for our next question, please. Next, we have Wilfred Yuen from Daiwa. Please go ahead.
Okay. My question for the first progress, and thank you for taking my questions. My first question is on life science. What is the key driver for the guidance upgrade? Can you give more color? What business areas and regional margins are driving up the growth? Can you also talk about the reason behind the gross margin drop in the first half and the second half margin outlook? Secondly, on the capital allocation, we have nearly $1 billion cash on hand. Do you have any update on how do you want to deploy your cash? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you for your question. For the first one, for the life science, we noticed that over the past two years, our gross margin has taken a temporary hit because of the change in our product mix, expansion in our global capacity, and our pricing strategy. As you can also see on slide 17, the gross profit margin for the first half of the year keeps stable as it was in the second half of 2024. We are confident our margin will stay stable and even get better because of the spot and the bold investment we are putting. We are setting up automation and expanding our capacity and making our global operation model productively. We are on track to see the margin improvement. Maybe Ray can add more to explain this question. Thank you, Ray.
Thank you for the question. The first, asking about which of the growth.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We haven't so much done in terms of the growth from optimization and most important integrated in our plans. That is why not only can deliver at a massive level demanded cost that is affordable to our customers and the fee.
A lot of customers have to.
Your first.
This is a data hack. Very critical here. That is how to capture and estimate and act. 10% of our growth is contributed by. We know that our growth has never changed until you are putting the platform. Thank you, that's a fascinating one.
Thank you, Ray.
Thank you, very clear.
Thank you, Wilfred. Thank you for your questions and the ongoing support for GenScript Biotech Corporation. We apologize for not being able to address all questions due to the time limitation. If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our investor relations team. We look forward to contacting you on the next call. Thank you.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.