Good morning, and good evening, global investors. Thank you for joining WuXi Biologics First Half 2024 Interim Results Earnings Call. This is Xi Chen, China healthcare analyst at Goldman Sachs. Before we kick off the session, I would like to highlight that this call is strictly for clients of Goldman Sachs and WuXi Biologics only, and this conversation is not intended for the media and is off the record. Participants will be removed from the call if they cannot be properly identified, and this call is not for the purpose of sharing or receiving of public otherwise confidential information. Attendees are public side market participants who may not reach the investor should not request non-public otherwise confidential information about issuers or securities or about market securities. Today, we are honored to have Dr. Chris Chen, CEO of the company, Dr.
Ming Tu, CFO of the company, and also Dr. Nina Feng, Head of IR, join the call to give us a briefing on the first half results and also the outlook. Without further ado, I'm gonna turn the call back to Chris. Chris, you can get started.
Thank you, Xi. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, global investors. It's really my pleasure again to share with you our 2024 interim results. As everyone knows, 2024 is a very dynamic environment, but I'm actually very pleased to share that we believe the company has achieved very solid results. If you look at from the... You know, this is a very similar challenge we update every year when we talk to investors, right? If you look at the number of projects, we actually see a very significant growth year-over-year, from 613 assets to 742 assets.
So tomorrow, if you hear good news about which molecule, you know, being great, achieving great success results, very successful results, there's 30% or 40% chance that molecule is already enabled by WuXi, and that's how powerful this portfolio is. Looking at 2024, the first six months, our non-COVID revenue growth was actually 7.7%. But I'm sure that if, again, excluding COVID, our growth was pretty decent. Despite all those uncertainties, despite budget funding challenges, despite the geopolitics, we actually added 61 projects, much better than we had, isn't it? You know, because of the dynamic environment. We excluded eight COVID projects and also one non-continuing commercial manufactured project.
So our number now is like, now if you do that, our commercial projects were 14 last year this time, and now it's 16. So it's still a very healthy growth. Our pipeline remained pretty healthy. Our share with them at all. Our employee number very steady. Our retention rate extremely high. So on the left side, operational metrics, and on the right side is actually the financial results. So you know, as I mentioned earlier, non-COVID revenue growth 7.7%, but because the first half of last year, we have very strong, we have still some decent COVID revenue. So overall, our revenue is flat. If you look at the first half of 2023, that was the best period in the company's history.
You know, we have a significant our deal with GSK and with Duality, and that give us around more than CNY 300 million of milestone revenue. We have COVID revenue about CNY 500 million. We have very high efficiency. So first half 2023 is a very high base to compare from. But despite that, looking at first half 2024, amid all those challenges, we actually were seeing our adjusted net profit down about 13%. So I mentioned, the first half of 2023, we had a significant deal that led to a significant milestone revenue, around 300 million, 300 million RMB. This year, we didn't have it in the first half, but fortunately, we already had it in this month.
So, some of you will hear me talk about the Curon MSD deal. Had that deal happened in June, basically, had that deal happened a few months earlier, our adjusted net profit would also almost be flat. So the minus 13% reduction or decrease of the adjusted net profit is actually mostly timing, because we have RMB 300 million of the milestone revenue first half of last year, and we don't have it until you know, Q3 of this year. So it's pure timing issue. I think again, if you exclude the GSK deal from last year, or if the Curon MSD deal happened when you know, in Q2, we would have achieved comparable adjusted net profit.
So that's why I said, amid all the dynamic situation, you know, with, with the geopolitics, with budget funding issue, with the global macro, we are able to still achieve this result. This is actually, I'm very happy with the progress of the company. So if you look at adjusted gross, gross profit margin, adjusted net profit margin, adjusted EBITDA margin, even with this financial result, we are actually still, one of the best, if not the best in the industry. So moving forward to the next slide. Again, looking back in the past 10 years, we actually have seen tremendous, tremendous progress, of WuXi as a company. Our revenue, our non-COVID revenue grew a CAGR of 54%, including last year, right? When COVID hit, we felt that globally, we are responsible.
We have the global responsibility to help every company achieving, you know, their goal, moving their COVID assets to the clinic and to commercial. So as a result, we also benefited from another innovative deal. So that make WuXi grow much bigger and much stronger. And so now that COVID is over, we are gonna resume the growing pattern. So we are, you know, because of our unique CRDMO. Sharing more details in the first half this year. So looking at the left chart, the right chart, that this already is something I mentioned. So overall, the revenue is flat, but if you exclude COVID, it's actually 7.7 growth. Looking at the second half, the growth will be much stronger. So I'll share with you later on.
The growth will be RD&M, will all be strong. Looking at the right side, now you see, I think some interesting sort of segmentation of our results. As I mentioned earlier, last year, we had very significant milestone revenue of around CNY 300 million. But if you exclude that, our early phase program, so basically the deep blue actually grow more than 20%. So this show of really a strong recovery of our R&D, right? And if you look at the top, the light blue, which actually you see a non-COVID M. So the deep blue is R&D, and this is the M. We actually see an 11% growth as well. So if you look at the growth on revenue on project phase, right?
I mentioned to you earlier, the milestone in R is a pure timing issue, because we need to achieve that Q3 of this year. You know, on the M side, you see double-digit growth. On the R&D side, actually, we see 20% growth, very healthy. Looking forward, the second half, we'll see RD&M all growing. We are very happy with the progress of the company, despite all those uncertainties. Looking at the revenue by geographic is also this is not something we manage, this is as a result of our client profiles. North America, actually, you know, in the first half of this year, was actually more than 58% of rev. It's growing 27%.
We do not see a major sort of, you know, like sort of a rush on the contract that led to the COVID, that led to the revenue growth in North America. It's actually a normal pace of our business. So North America, very healthy growth. E.U., we have very significant COVID revenue, in the past. We also have the mega deal, as I mentioned, on the R side, 300 million RMB. So if you exclude that, we actually see a high single digit growth. But because of the first half of last year, we have very significant, very strong European, revenue growth. So now you actually see a minus 27%, reduction.
But again, if you exclude this, sort of, a timing issue of that, of that discovery deal, of the our market, of the our revenue, and you exclude COVID, it's still pretty good, high single-digit growth. China is, now Chinese, revenue from China. This is probably the lowest percentage in the past five years, around 6-17%, less than 17%. Less than 17%. So, this is two reasons. One is that we do see some weakness in the Chinese market, as, everyone know, funding is not strong enough, and the Chinese market is also very small. But also, actually, a lot of the top premier assets, actually, from China now are being acquired by U.S. and European companies. As a result, we actually book revenue in Europe or in, U.S.
If you exclude that, China would actually be probably down about 10%, which will reflect the current Chinese market. Rest of the world, mostly Japan and Korea, we actually see a pretty strong growth. So as I mentioned, again, we don't add results. This gives me where the direction, where we should focus on efforts. So we'll continue to focus effort on U.S., Europe, and Japan, Korea, and for China we'll wait for the Chinese biotech to recover. But in the midterm and long term, I'm still very bullish on China. I think there is a huge unmet medical need. I think WuXi will be a strong beneficiary of the Chinese growth in that sector. So the slide number nine, something that every investor is very familiar with.
Actually, every time I talk to investors, I think, you know, when you look at WuXi at high level, this is the only chart you need. You will see whether WuXi will grow or not. I'm actually very happy to announce that, despite all those uncertainties, we added 61 projects. This is very comparable to the past three or four years. Actually, might be better than the first half of last year, where the biotech funding was hit as hardest. Okay. Among the 61 projects, actually, 30% come from U.S. Also, more than 30 projects come from U.S. So half of projects come from U.S., which are again saying that, you know, WuXi and U.S. biotech community has a very strong tie. Despite all those noise, you know, the U.S. biotech community still rely on WuXi to deliver their programs.
Okay. As I also mentioned in the last call, that, because of the, the geopolitics, we may have... Our win the molecule strategy may be limited or may have some stronger barriers. We're actually very happy to report we actually, you know, we are able to overcome these barriers still with an incredible win the molecule, result. We won nine programs, among them, three phase III and one, commercial. Again, in Q July, we actually won four phase III, four commercial. So win the molecule will continue to be a sound strategy for WuXi to go. I mentioned that earlier, when opening slide, that we actually, we took the COVID projects out for the commercial. We also took our non, revenue generating commercial project out. So that's why you see commercial now only 16 instead of 26.
If we add all those numbers back to the top, we remove the other nine projects from the commercial portfolio. They don't expect to add revenue next year. I already highlighted Win-the-Molecule has been an incredible strategy. Over the past couple of years, we actually won 78 projects, 78 projects, from the global community, from the global peers, from a large pharma in-house. I'm also very happy to share with you, you know, despite all those headlines, so far, we only have one development project potentially will be transferred to a third party because of the geopolitics. That gives you the context.
You know, we won 17 projects in five or six years, but this year, despite all those headlines, we only have one potential project worth about $16 million from a small biotech company that potentially will be transferred to a U.S. CMO because of politics, because of geopolitics. That gives you a flavor of how much the geopolitics have impacted us. So looking at the backlog, I always use that. We're always very proud of the backlog. The backlog will serve as a milestone payment. And I also remind investors that our backlog is so high that actually it we don't. You don't expect us to see a strong growth in the backlog because it's so big. So I always give an example. I have a $20 billion backlog. If you want me to grow 10%, that's $2 billion.
I have a revenue of, but let's say, revenue, the next couple of years, revenue, $3 billion. Now, this is. I need to sign $5 billion deals to grow backlog by 10%. That's why backlog will be very steady. Another factor in our backlog, that is, our revenue, our counterpart to revenue cycle, that is a lot more reduced. When we started in this industry, our, let's say, for a development, for a D project, our cycle time, 18 months, you see a very strong backlog. Now, our cycle time back in 12 months, even nine months. Let's say January, we sign 20 projects, right? The average revenue is 16 per each project. Then January, $140 million, by November, it's $140 million become the revenue.
So actually, it does not get reflected in the whole year backlog at all. So our backlog may be very different from traditional CMO. For traditional CMO, people have five, ten-year contracts. The backlog is actually very visible. It's very relevant. But for us, R&D mostly not captured in backlog. Also, because of the Win-the-Molecule strategy, our clients are not in a rush to, you know, give us a ten-year forecast of the programs. So as a result, our current backlog only reflects a fraction of our manufacturing projects, and does not reflect most of the R&D projects. So at this point, backlog may not actually be a good indicator for us to share with how strong our revenue growth can be.
So we are constantly looking at new metrics to see what, how can we, how investors understand our revenue growth. So now investors ask, you know, how, what, how can, what, what can we do? So the best thing you can actually do now is, you know, with the project number. So I mentioned that this year we probably sign, let's say, 110 projects. That 110 projects that give us, let's say, $800 million of that contract value. That $800 million may not be captured in the backlog. So every year now backlog we almost need to add almost, you know, a $700-$800 million to the backlog number. That's actually the real backlog. So I'm not sure whether I explained basically our current backlog.
Because of how fast we move, our revenue is in a cycle time of a couple of months. Our D revenue is in a cycle time of couple quarters, in a three or four quarters. So because of the fast pace, we move, convert contract revenue, actually for a lot of them, close to $1 billion is not reflected in the backlog. So if you look at this three-year backlog, right now for $3.6 billion, but if you add, you know, about $1 billion each year, so exactly the three-year backlog is actually almost $6 billion. And that gives you the assurance that our revenue will continue to grow. So because this year is very unique, that's why I spent more time explaining the backlog a little bit more. So our pipeline continues to be very healthy, very diversified.
As I mentioned earlier, in theory, if you hear good news about a molecule, there's 30%-40% chance that molecule, one out of three, you know, 30% chance that molecule at WuXi is in one of those portfolios, whether it's an antibody, whether it's a bispecific, whether it's ADC, fusion protein or vaccine. That's how strong this portfolio is. We have 281 first-class programs. We have 167 ADC programs. The market share, the more complex the molecule is, the more likelihood a company, a global company, will choose to work with WuXi. Because of our technical strength, because of our experience with those clients. Again, you know, who in this community has experience with more than 100 ADCs?
Who in this community have experience with more than a hundred ADCs, a hundred and fifty ADCs? And that's the WuXi standard, and that's where, that's how we can help the global community. And that's why I mentioned the the pace we convert contract revenue gets faster and faster, because we are able to leverage all those experience we gained in the previous projects to help the next program be more successful. So I think, unfortunately, you guys don't really know our portfolio in depth, but I this is some of the best I can do. I can share with you, we are very excited about our end potential. Despite geopolitics, we are very excited about our future on the manufacturing side. So our R&D is very unique. They are less geopolitically sensitive.
Our model is geopolitically sensitive, but we believe we still have a strong value to the global community. So among the portfolio, now among the eight active, eight of them could be $3-$5 billion each. And, you know, if we become a significant contributor of that program, we'll probably, you know, on the top, on the left side, left column, each program probably give us $200 million of them. Some of them are already, some of them are actually getting very close. Some are already getting close to $100 million already for us, even though they're actually phase 3 or post phase. So on the column level, on the left side column, eight programs are really the heavyweight CMO contribution in the next couple of years.
You see them like very diverse like this, but you see kind of the bispecifics, you see oncology other activity. You see all the new programs, you see ADC, very diverse, but very happy to report that. Among the eight programs of... Three of them are already mega for us, that they already achieved more than $3 billion of sales. And then, in the middle column, there are, those are the potential blockbusters. So this is that program will generate about $100 million, $200 million value for us. I think among 10 of them, among several of them are already approved or close to approved. And then on the right side column is additional level.
Again, if you add those twenty-eight programs together, you almost get more than $3 billion dollar rev, peak rev. If every program achieve peak sales, our revenue actually will be $3 billion. So that's why, you know, despite the political headwinds, we are still very confident our end will become a very, a very strong player in the global community. We may not be able to win every project that we compete, but follow the molecule give us strong enough portfolio to make us one of the best or one of the largest CMO players in this company. So with that, I would like to hand over to Ming to talk more in detail about the financials.
Thank you, Chris. Now I'm going to talk about our financial performances. Slide fifteen gives us the highlights of our financial metrics for the first half of the year. First, revenue. The first half of this year was a challenging period. However, despite the geopolitical headwinds, post-COVID slowdown, our revenue continues to grow. As you can see that our revenue exceeded RMB 8.5 billion during the reporting period, a modest 1% increase, but excluding the RMB 0.5 billion of COVID revenue in last year's baseline, our non-COVID revenue grew by about 7.7%, continuing our journey of solid growth over the past decade, and also proved our resilience under such a tough microenvironment.
Our revenue growth in the first half was primarily driven by the following factors: First, successful execution of our follow the molecule strategies, as more and more projects are advancing through our funnel towards the later stages. Now, excluding the COVID projects, we have 56 in phase three and 16 in commercial manufacturing stage. Win the molecule strategy also added nine projects to our portfolio, with four in late phases. Overall, late phase and the commercial manufacturing revenue grew by 11.7%, excluding COVID, and also represented over 40% of our total portfolio during the reporting period. Secondly, in the first half of last year, due to the biotech funding constraints, we only scored forty-six new projects. As our typical revenue conversion cycle from pre-IND to early phase is about nine months to a year.
The lower number of the new projects in the first half of last year created some headwind for us for the revenue conversion in the first half of this year. Nonetheless, our pre-IND revenue grew by 9.2%, and early phase revenue was still steady compared to that in the same period last year, enabled by our competitive strength in R and D in our unique CRDMO business model. Also, the new exciting growth platforms, such as ADC, bispecific, contributed significantly to our overall revenue growth during the reporting period. Another factor contributing to the difficult comparison year-over-year is that in the first half of last year, we recorded two mega licensing deals under discovery services with a total amount of over $52 million.
If you exclude these, lumpy discovery service deals in the baseline, our pre-IND revenue grew by about 20%, demonstrating our competitive advantage in the pre-IND area. Also, this is a proof of the signs of recovery in biotech funding. The strong pre-IND sales will also provide strong infusion into our pipeline for early phase revenue growth in the near future. We also have a full pipeline of discovery service deals that are likely to hit in the second half of this year. The announced Curon MSD deal is just one of them. Lastly, with our capacity expansion globally, we had Dundalk, Leverkusen, Germany, and Cranbury, New Jersey, contributing over 50 million of incremental revenue to our commercial and clinical manufacturing sector. Moving over to gross profit, which decreased about 200 million to approximately 3.4 billion RMB in the first half.
The 5.9% decline in the gross profit was primarily attributed to the mixed impact from the lower discovery service deals. As I mentioned earlier, we scored two mega upfront licensing deals in the first half of last year, contributing roughly $52 million or 370 million CNY on top line, and over 300 million CNY of the GP margin. The absence of the mega licensing deals this reporting period were offset by the revenues from development sector, where the GP margin is roughly half of those from the research segment. The mixed impact here is about 258 basis points of the GP margin compression. That's why Chris said earlier, you know, say, on hindsight, if a CRDMO deal was recorded before June the thirtieth, our GP margin will be flat year-over-year.
Nonetheless, we still see our GP margin. We'll still see our GP margin improve once the mega discovery service deals hit our top line in the second half of this year. The second reason for the GP decline was that the plant utilization rate in China in the first half of the year was slightly lower than the same period last year, due to the conclusion of the COVID projects, contributing to about one point of the GP decline due to the idle capacities. Globally, we're still in ramp-up phase at our new facilities in Ireland, Germany, and the U.S., There are some execution delays, but overall impact from the ramp-up losses have been reduced compared to the same period last year. And we're still confident that our Ireland facility will break even and turn a profit in early 2025.
All these GP challenges were partially offset by the efficiency improvements from WBS, our lean manufacturing implementation, which gave us about one point of the margin lift. Excluding share-based compensation, our adjusted gross profit margin stands at 44.4%, still one of the leading positions in the industry. Adjusted EBITDA, which is a proxy of our operating cash generation, declined about 6.5% to 3.6 billion RMB during the reporting period, due to the same reasons I mentioned earlier under the GP discussion. However, compared to our global peers, the adjusted EBITDA margin of 41.6% is still one of the highest in the CDMO industry.
Adjusted net profit is the IFRS-based net profit, including the impact of foreign exchange gain and losses, share-based compensation, fair value gains and losses from our investment portfolios, and also the XDC IPO-related one-time listing expenses. This is a proxy of our business profitability under continuous operation. As you can see that the adjusted net profit exceeded CNY 2.5 billion in the first half. The adjusted net profit largely moved in tandem with the adjusted gross profit year-over-year. The additional CNY 200 million decline was due to the increase of SG&A expenses as we build the standalone capabilities for XDC, which is now a publicly listed company, and also we continue to invest in global footprints for our future growth. Next page, please.
Slide 16 shows our profitability metrics over the past decade, including IFRS-based net profit, net profit attributable to owners of the company, earnings per share, and also adjusted earnings per share. You can see that our net profit has grown at a CAGR of 63.8% between 2014 and 2022, and exceeded CNY 3.5 billion last year. In the first half of this year, our IFRS-based net profit was about CNY 1.8 billion, roughly 23.9% lower than that in the first half of 2023. The CNY 500 million decline in the IFRS-based net profit was primarily due to the following factors. First, the one-time unrealized foreign exchange translation impact of over CNY 200 million.
As we continue to invest in our global footprint in Europe, the net euro exposure on our balance sheet now is about EUR 1.1 billion. The 150 basis points of euro depreciation from 1Q 2024 to the end of first half created this unrealized translation loss of EUR 126 million. But compared to the EUR 100 million gain last year, it was a EUR 226 million swing year-over-year. Again, this is an unrealized accounting paper loss. Once euro appreciates against RMB, our investment in Europe will be translated into FX gains. This fluctuation in the unrealized gains and losses in FX translation fundamentally won't bring any impact to our underlying operations.
Secondly, as I mentioned earlier, there was about 200 million increase in SG&A expenses as we continue to invest in our global footprints and building XDC's standalone capabilities as a public listed company. Net profit attributable to owners of the company and earnings per share moved in tandem with each other. Compared to the IFRS-based net profit, there is a nine to 10 points of negative impact from the minority interest pickup year-over-year, as XDC's net profit increased almost threefolds, compared to that in the same period last year. The minority interest pickup between consolidated net profit and net profit attributable to the owners of the company amount to over 200 million RMB. There is also some dilution impact, as during XDC's IPO, November last year, we offered 16% of the shares for public flotation.
If we exclude share-based compensation, investment gain and loss, foreign exchange translation impact, the adjusted EPS is about $0.55 per share, roughly 19% lower than that of the same period last year. Again, the most important metric here is the adjusted EPS, and it strips out the one-time non-cash impact, and it is a better performance indicator of our continuing operations. Chris, next page, please. Slide 17 gives us more insights into our gross profit and the cost of sales. In the first half. Our gross margin was about 39.1%. Excluding share-based compensation, our adjusted gross margin was 44.4%, still one of the highest in the industry compared to the first half last year, our adjusted GP margin had roughly 2.6 percentage points of compression, largely due to the mix impact.
As I mentioned earlier, in the first half of last year, we recorded two mega discovery service deals that earned us upfront licensing payment of over $52 million. The accounting profit associated with these upfront payments are over 90%. This year, we also have a full pipeline of the discovery service deals with a similar magnitude, but they're likely to be booked in the second half of this year. The absence of the lumpy upfront payment deals in the first half created a mixed impact of the 250 basis points in the margin compression. The manufacturing facility utilization in China was also slightly lower in the first half of this year than last year, as we had about $500 million of the COVID sales in the first half of last year.
This was why, compared to the same period last year, labor and fixed overhead, as a percentage of the revenue, was slightly higher. Compared to earlier years, like, 2022, our GP margin had roughly five percentage points of compression temporarily, largely due to ramp-up impacts of our new manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Europe. As we disclosed in the past, the Fed- batch and the perfusion facilities in Dundalk, Ireland, the drug product facilities at Leverkusen, Germany, and also the clinical manufacturing facilities at Cranbury, New Jersey, were in various stages of ramping up. In the ramp-up phase, we usually have the step changes in manufacturing costs as labor and overhead hit a ledger at once, but the revenue increase are usually linear.
Hence, most of the biologics facilities will incur a loss at the initial start-up stage and turning a profit as the utilization gradually improves towards a steady state. In the first half of 2024, these new facility ramp up created about 350 million RMB of the headwind, or five percentage points of the GP compression compared to our normal operations. The good news is that the negative impact from the ramp up is smaller than last year as new sites improves their operations and the utilization. Also, we have WBS, our lean manufacturing and productivity improvements to provide partial offsets. You can see the composition of cost components in the stack bars below, with roughly 20% in labor costs, 19% in material and 22% in overhead, which includes maintenance, utilities, and depreciation of the manufacturing facilities.
The higher overhead costs were primarily driven by new facilities coming online as we expanded our global capacity from 156 kL at the beginning of 2023 to about 300 kL at the end of first half this year. The new capacities brought on more depreciation, utilities, maintenance, and other overhead charges. Next page, please, Chris. Slide 18 presents us the IFRS-based net profit walk year-over-year. As you can see that our IFRS net profit in the first half of 2023 was about CNY 2.3 billion. We lost about CNY 200 million due to the GP compression, largely due to the mix impact.
With the discovery service deals that are going to hit in the second half, the mix impact will swing the other way in the second half and give us a lift in the G- in the net profit margins for the second half and total year. We spent CNY 200 million more as G&A to build standalone capabilities for XDC as a public company and to expand our global footprint for BD coverages and operations. Also, due to the Euro depreciation from January 1, 2024 to June 30, 2024, we had unrealized FX translation loss about CNY 200 million. But it is accounting paper loss. Once the Euro rebounds against RMB, we'll get it back. So that's why you see a lot of these net profit declines in the first half are temporary, and then we can get it back in the second half. Next page, please.
Page 19 is about liquidity. At WuXi Biologics here, we have a strong balance sheet and solid cash position. As of the end of the first half, we have CNY 9.5 billion cash, sufficient funding to support our global growth. As a result of our long-term conservative funding strategies, we only had about CNY 2.2 billion of debt, 30% of which are working capital facilities. And our gearing ratio, which is defined as interest-bearing debt over equity, is merely 4.8%. At the same time, we have about CNY 5 billion of the bank credit facilities we can tap into if we need. Our CapEx spending in the first half was about CNY 1.9 billion, mainly for capacity expansions in the U.S. and Singapore for both biologics and XDC, much lower than the six point...
CNY 3.6 billion adjusted EBITDA generated in the first half. The reason we had CNY 0.6 billion of free cash outflow in the first half was due to the working capital occupation and tax payments. Specifically, our AR and inventory increased as we grew our global operations. Our goal is to continue to deliver positive free cash flow for the year, with more focuses on the efficiencies in operating cash flow generation and also CapEx disciplines. Now I'm going to pass the baton back to Chris to share more insights into the business operations. Chris?
Thanks, Ming. Yeah, I think for global investors this is a kind of update on the BioSecure. We are continuously working with the legislators to ensure they understand our business model, and that we do not cause any national security concern. In terms of the current status, as everyone know, there's a chance that there will be a vote on standalone bill, and there's also a chance that this will still be part of the NDAA. But I think overall, I think the project from U.S. government may be impact, project funded by U.S. government. It may be impacted, but they will also have a grandfather period that allow them to continue through twenty twenty-two. I think this prohibition do not extend project being funded by the, or other source of capital.
I think so this is very clear. Only U.S. federal-funded projects are impacted. That's why overall impact to the program is actually very fairly limited. We remain committed to, you know, work with the global clients to make sure that they understand our position. We also want clarify this with all the legislators to ensure they understand what we should do the model. I think so far, the majority of our global clients are committed to navigating through this challenge with us, and as you see from the financial results, Slide 42 has a lot of details about what we do, how we navigate the geopolitical uncertainty to benefit our clients. So I'm gonna skip through the slide with many details. I think our business strategy to build parallel in the supply chain for RD&M in three regions.
We have very strong RDM in China already. We start to build RDM in U.S., and then three or four years later, our target is to have 37% RDM in China, you know, 20-30% RDM in Singapore and Europe, and then maybe 5% RDM in U.S.. This will be the. It's a perfect structure for us to be able to target to every market and work with every company in this community. So just give you a more detailed update on every facility that we invest in. Ireland is getting into a pretty good shape. We're almost fully involved in next year. We completed our first PPQ campaign successfully, and then we have two more ongoing.
I think we are our breakeven for Ireland is delayed to about the first half of next year, but next year will also be the first year where Ireland will profit. I think the site will be achieving steady state operation in 2026. So this is the M in global CDMO, right? The R part, the D part in U.S., Cranbury, MFG 18, is also doing very well. We have run about nine partnerships with 100% success, and we have certain programs ongoing. We're planning adding capacity in China, in Hangzhou, where MFG 20 is, and we're building our site in Singapore, and those are the new investments that we're working right now. So in the meantime, I'll give you an exciting update on CRDMO.
On the R part, we mentioned this MSD Curon deal a few times already. This is actually the most exciting event in a way. You can say this is the most exciting event in WuXi Biologics history. And you know, the asset you know use all our WuXi platform. The CD3 is a WuXi proprietary CD3, probably best in the industry. The bispecific platform is the WuXiBody, the manufacturing process, the WuXiUP. So you know, we actually built this asset and together with a startup company in China, and now this asset is part of MSD. Right? So if this program is successful, we will receive hundreds of millions of dollars of milestone payment and 6%-10% royalties.
So again, because this has a huge role to play, hopefully in the onco space. And, you know, if MSD can have a peak sale of $5 million this one, we may be receiving $500 million royalties alone on this program. That's why I said this is probably the most exciting event in WuXi Biologics history. We also mentioned, you know, this deal was signed in August eighth. If this deal was signed in June thirtieth, our adjusted net profit would actually be flat compared to last year. Where last year was the first half of 2023, as I said, the best record in company history. So if this deal happened two months earlier, then I would also claim first half of 2024 will be the best in the company history.
That's how the timing of this event just sort of changes the dynamics of the changes the profitability of the company quite a lot. So that's a very exciting update on our part. Now on the D, we continue to deliver incredible success. Now, we have already had 552 molecules moving to planning because of Wuxi. Right? Last year was a slow year in terms of new project, but we still delivered 123 molecules to the clinic. 123, yeah. And that's why I said, you know, tomorrow, if there's good news about a molecule, there's a 30% chance that molecule is part of those, and Wuxi will benefit from that, from that program. So this continues the exciting part about our D.
So in R&D, the next is M. On the M part, we continue to see strong growth of the PPQs, which is an indicator of commercial success. Our PPQ success rate is still the best in the industry, 97%, even in this, despite the uncertainty. That's why companies... You know, I mentioned in the first seven months of this year, we signed up four phase III programs. You know, from this, from a contract side, first seven months alone, CNY 8 million we need to deliver in the next year or two. I think that give us a strong momentum to continue this manufacturing revenue. On the other part, we are, which is also very proud, right? We are probably one of the few companies who can deliver a 100% successful BLA.
A lot of you probably read about Regeneron, received a complete response letter from FDA because their CDMO could not deliver on backgrounds. But you probably heard other companies have a similar issue who are our peers. But so far, which is very fortunate, we have 100% success on BLA. Basically, every time FDA, EMA, Chinese agency comes to us, we pass. Every time Chinese FDA, EMA, FDA comes to us, we pass. And we have done that 37 times. So among them, 20, 21 times from U.S. FDA and EMA. I think this earlier this year, EMA come to here to inspect for 10 products. If you imagine, right, only large pharma have this type of scale of inspection. Most of the time, EMA go to a CMO, and probably that one product, two product.
EMA come to us inspecting ten products, and recently also FDA checked with us with the two PLI inspections at the same time. I think that, again, you know, that really add value for WuXi to become a comfortable partner for our global community, because so far we are one of the few, if not the only one, with a 100% success BLA. So we, as I mentioned earlier, we have now we have 37 inspectors with a 100% passing results. Almost all our facilities are GMP certified by the global community. Why do I have such a confident that 40 will be on target? Because we have a very strong leading indicators. We monitor every site, and we monitor every client come audit us. So on average, we had 144 audits first half of this year.
If you think about it, if you sample that, basically three hundred audits a year. Every day there is an audit going on at one of our sites, and then we is also a very clean learning organization. All the lessons learned from one site will be pretty quickly coming into the next one. That's why we believe we have, you know, we are the strongest in this aspect. We are not the CMO, but obviously now it turned out we are getting the best track record in quality. As some of you may have already read through the different news that we released, we actually have a very, very exciting leadership position as well.
So some of the leaders who have been with us for 10 years, 20 years, they're getting to a retirement age. Now we have a young talent, relatively young talent, who come to work with us, who lead us for next decade. I think all those executive planning are planned. And I’m also very proud, our depth, our bench strength is incredibly strong. You know, all those new leaders that come from our own training. You know, Sherry Gu, our new CTO, 10 years at WuXi. Wei Guo, our CMO, 10 years at WuXi. Most of them are MIT chemical engineers, and our quality head in-house for 6 years with us as well. So I think, you know, we now have an organization that can bring strong leadership for the next decade.
So every time I will share with investors, I also want to give you a couple of good examples how well we are. Right? In this case, we acquired a very tier two CDMO, a tier two Chinese CDMO back in 2021 during COVID. Six, four years later, we actually converted that facility into a world-class facility. That shows you the WuXi culture, the WuXi execution, right? So for this facility, for this drug product facility, we actually have an average revenue of almost $500,000 per person with a 60% gross margin. This is a again, this used to be a factory that losing money and one of our peers, and then we acquired that to make the most formidable opportunity in this global community.
But just give you the concept, most of our peers, the gross margin will probably be 40% or even 30% in the global community. We are able to have this facility at 60%, the gross margin. That again, show our execution, right? How can we do that? It's actually a whole overhaul of the whole system. We look at this, you know, we look at with the WBS, with the digital, with the agile organization, with automation. We put all those tools together. This actually turn out, you know, we can, we can come in three years, we convert a mediocre or maybe a tier two, you know, facility in China, to come into the one of the best facility or the most profitable facility in this community.
I think lastly, I would also want to share with you, you know, there are many tech programs, you know, from acquisition of biotech by large pharma. I think, you know, we have now 66 assets acquired from by biotech company, acquired by large pharma. On average, every time there's an acquisition, we actually get 30 million additional compound. Not only those large pharma who acquire don't transfer product away from WuXi, they actually add product to us. I think that's the beauty of our execution. So every time pass down.
Some of the large pharma now look at due diligence, you know, among some of the large pharma, when they are looking at acquisition, some companies, 50% of their work is done by WuXi, other companies 75% of work is done by WuXi. And that also continue to bode well for us for the next couple of years, when M&A is more in our industry. Most of you already know about XDC's exciting performance. I just want to share with you that, you know, we still consolidated approval, 52%. This is a fully integrated projects. With that, I want to get into the section where every time I meet with you, I also want to highlight a couple of technologies. I think as I mentioned, the Curab deal already, you know, highlight our best-in-class, the CD3 molecules.
So our CD3 platforms now have two multideals with five programs. Again, each program receive hundred million dollars of milestone payment and potentially single-digit or even high single-digit royalties. I think that this project, our R&D business is actually becoming very tangible. I think this will be a huge contribution to our top line and bottom line in the next couple of years. So I already use the MSD program as an example. We could receive, you know, $500 million or more worth of royalties if this program turned out to be a mega blockbuster. And we continue to work with the global community. Hopefully, next time when I update with you, this five become seven, eight, ten. We believe our CD3 best-in-class. This CD3 franchise not only generate milestone payment royalties, but also downstream development manufacturing.
This is the beauty of CRDMO business model. Our bispecific, both of those technology we invested back in 2016, right? Now, it is start to bear fruit, and this again, show how the strategy at WuXi is incredibly strong. You know, 2016, 2017, we invested in CD3. We then invested the WuXiBody, now they started to generate billions of dollars revenue for us. So if you look at ROIs, incredible investment for our technology. Both of those technologies probably invested less than $10 million and now, you know, five, seven, eight years later, they can generate probably $100 million revenue per year, and at some point, even $100 million profit per year. And on the ADC side, now you have new technologies very similar as well.
And on the manufacturing side, now we have the next generation manufacturing process that can really give our clients three to six times more productivity. So my two thousand liter reactor could produce the same amount of material as someone else, twelve K or fifteen K, and my five K or six K can produce the same thing as someone else, twenty-five K. This is how technology can enable us. I think I've said over and over again, the technology wise, you know, the cost wise, we are already we can compete with any company with large data still. I think now, at the six thousand liter scale, twelve thousand liter scale, we already have a hundred batch of data in China and are basically say, cost is very comparable. In China, we can actually do it cheaper.
So, WuXi in the past couple of years, we have been really seeing tremendous growth. We also started to implement our own lean manufacturing system for the WuXi Business System. I think you already heard from me that we should actually achieve at least 100% improvement this year because of .... And our factory, I give you an example, is also because of our business system. We are very keen on ESG. I think we are also working on our green CRDMO. We want to make every part of our business green. The research part, the development part, the manufacturing part. We also won global recognition because of our effort in the ESG, right?
We are probably one of the best companies in this community, the CDMO community, on our ESG efforts, as most of you already read or heard about. I think that's a quick update on our business. I think in summary, we remain firm believers that CRDMO business model is the most efficient model in industry. The R that transform individual biotech concept from across the globe into reality. You know, and again, use Curon as an example. Curon, you know, worked with us back in 2021. Now, four years later, the company is acquired, you know, with a $1.3 billion valuation, and WuXi will benefit from the R and D and M. But that's a very good example of how our play into the space.
And our R&D, you know, despite all those uncertain scientific projects, we move this program forward with excellent execution, and it was the best timeline in our industry. That's how we add value to biotech. With the manufacturing, our goal is to provide cost competitive services to patients worldwide. That's why we said we want to use the technology to our 4K and produce as much material as someone else 15K. We want to make sure cost is competitive in our industry. So you have seen over and over again, WuXi execute, WuXi deliver because of our people, because of our technology, because our quality and our strategy and our business model. So I think our goal, again, is to make sure that we can serve the global community faster, better, and cheaper.
With that, I want to share with you our 2024 outlook. On the first half of this year, again, our. You know, if you look at the COVID rev and non-COVID rev, actually up 7.7%. Our adjusted profit is down 13%. But if you include the mega deal from Curon, GSK, if you move that deal back to the first half of this year, our adjusted profit would be actually almost flat. So the rev, you know, the profit, profitability decrease is mostly a timing issue. It's mostly a timing issue. We are able to, you know, just by.
Second half of this year, our profitability will be much better, and that will more than compensate the this lag in the profitability in the first half. As I mentioned earlier, so far, you know, only five projects that are worth about $6 million from a biotech company have been replicated. We are working actively to mitigate the impact with proposed BioSecure Act. You know, we still want to make sure we're committed to maximizing shareholder value. A few more summary on each aspect. On the R&D side, on the R&D side, we have the Curon deal. We expect several deals like Curon in the next 18 months as well.
On the D part, you know, on a safety project side, they can have F will be 61, and you do not see the strong impact from the global headline. On the M part, we have, you know, many programs. We have quite a few programs will become mega for us, will generate $3 billion-$5 billion revenue, getting to the final state, and we will benefit from that. Despite external challenges, we are cautiously optimistic that the second half of this year will be much better than the first half. You will see strong growth in R, and in D, and in M. You will see a margin improvement overall as well. I think we have promised investors, global investors, that overall, our margin will improve by about 100 basis points, you know, almost every year. Right?
With all those excitement in the past couple of months, we actually we will maintain our 2024 full-year target for both revenue and profit margin. In summary, our business fundamentals remain very strong. Our business model is very unique. Our technology is strong. Our technical capability and excellent execution enabled by our people and culture are very difficult to replicate. We have a very strong ecosystem. That ecosystem will drive us to deliver sustainable high growth. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Chen, and also Mr. Tu, about the very comprehensive introduction of the first half results and a very detailed operation. We can start the Q&A session now. Just to recap that if you wish to ask questions, you should raise your hand, is our priority choice, and also you can put your question into the Q&A box. Alternatively, of course, you can also send me an email, xi.chen@gs.com. I can read the question on behalf of you. We already got a couple questions from investors, but I'm gonna prioritize those who raise their hands. Start with Chen Chen from UBS.
Thank you, Xi. Can you hear me?
Yes, please.
Great. Yeah, thanks, management, for taking my questions. My first question is, for the upcoming 26 blockbuster and potential blockbuster CMO projects you listed just now, what's the chance that you will be their primary supplier? And, I don't know, like, in the industry, normally, what percentage of manufacturing would be assigned to the primary supplier and the secondary supplier, respectively? Yeah, that's my first question. And my second question is, you mentioned that a biotech client is considering to transfer, like, one project to third parties. So is that project from win the molecule or follow the molecule strategy? And if the client decided to transfer out eventually, how long does it take to do the transfer, and what is the rough cost for the client? Yeah, thanks.
Let me answer the second part first. So let me add only slightly, but this is a project worth $60 million, the DNA or IEP. So because of BioSecure Act, this company, this family company, you know, is to, you know, is the, you know, among the 700 assets, none, no other company are concerned except this company, they decided to thinking about. So they have legally, they have not transferred anything yet. I think but the, the company they transfer to, does not have a good track record. Among the 780 Win-the-Molecule projects, a lot of them come from the company. So we're still trying to negotiate with, discuss with this client to say, "Hopefully, the transfer, you'll stay." So, so far, they have not made a decision yet.
But that's why I call it very low. So among the seven hundred, seven hundred and forty-two assets, this is the only one that's being transferred, potentially being transferred. So you say, you know, unique company, that's it. This is a half of project. And that I gave you this number because only half of project out of seven hundred and forty-two is being transferred. I think that's why, you know, that for me, it is a qualifying number. So among the twenty-six programs, we believe even with the current environment, a majority of them would choose us as the primary supplier. And then when the product is approved, they may consider a second supplier or bring some capacity in-house. Again, because of which speed, which execution is the best, right?
Because again, you know, we, you know, so far, every program we run into PPQ. So our PPQ success rate is the best in the industry. Our FDA approval is the best in the industry. Our timeline is the best in the industry, right? With these three best, you know, staying with us, is actually still the best option they have. So even this year, in the past six months, we have two companies decided to stick, stay with us, to launch the product. Two U.S. companies with a mega blockbuster product. So each product worth more than $5 billion in sales potentially, and they still stick with us because they believe if they switch to a third party, to our peers, they may set the program back six to 12 years. I think.
So that's why we have a lot of value, because our track record... highest in industry. 100% success. If FDA reject you, it cost you another two years. And so, you know, those two failures could cost you three years already. If you think about that for biotech companies or for large pharma, three years is actually a, you know, incredibly, value time for them, for blood, sweat, and tears. That's why we still add up. Thank you, Chen.
Any follow-up question, Chen Chen?
Yeah, makes sense. Well, I think you would agree that the current share price is undervalued, so can we expect more share buybacks?
Yes, we will. Yeah.
Yeah. Cool.
Great. Next one coming from, Morgan Stanley, Daisy.
Okay. Thanks, Xi, and management for taking my question. This is Daisy from Morgan Stanley, asking on behalf of our team head, Sean. I have two questions here. The first one is: How does the reported first half results compare to your internal budgets amid such a challenging backdrop? What gives you confidence for a second half pickup to hit your full year guidance? The second question is about China capacity utilization rates. Without the COVID contribution this year, how can they improve utilization in China? How fast the utilization rate is going to ramp up in Europe? That's the two questions from me. Thanks.
Thank you, Daisy. Great question. Thank you. Yeah, I forgot to mention, actually, the first half, although investors, you know, although investors may not like the news today, but I think we actually... This is actually, we actually beat our budget. So that's why I'm very happy that we are able to achieve this result. The second half will be even better, because as I mentioned earlier, we already have the big boost from the pure MSD deal that will generate more than CNY 300 million profit for us for the second half.
So that's why I said if you move that deal to Q1 or Q2, we would have achieved the best first half in the company history. I think in terms of so we have seen, as I shared in this slide, we are able to. We can see growth in RD&M in all three engines in the second half. So unless there are additional black swan events that happen second half, we will be you know delivering our budget, but we will be maintaining you know achieving high single-digit growth on both top line and bottom line. And so from the China capacity side, we are slightly lower than this last year, but it's still getting around 60%. Still around 60%.
We hope that with that advantage will be ramped up. Europe is also getting close to 40%, hopefully 60% next year. I think that's why I'm able to give you the guidance that every year our gross profit margin will be improved by 100 to 150 basis points. Thank you, Daisy.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Chris. Very clear.
Next one, Jingyi Li from Harding Loevner.
Thank you, Dr. Chen. There's this concern on the market that the many CDMO players, especially biologics companies, have built, have been building capacities. There may be the concern about overcapacity on the horizon. So if you look at 2025 or global industry pipelines, do you see the utilization rate coming down as a whole industries? And how do you think about some of your competitors' capacity building exercises with Asian competitors, European competitors? Will they finally, you know, tip the supply-demand balance on that? So that will be my first question. Thank you.
Thank you, Jingyi. I think, when you talk about the capacity, because our business model is very unique, because we have RD&M. I would say R&D side, our capacity build up is still very effective on R&D side. So we are still, you know, very strong players. And even if they build capacity, their capability is almost like pushing five, ten years ago, right? So you're talking about the potential competition from India, from China. So because on the R&D part, even if they build capacity, they are almost like five, ten years old, our ourselves five, ten years ago. So then we're still way ahead of them. So it's still unlikely to impact our business.
But if you talk about M, right, where quite a few players are building capacity, but the barrier for M is incredibly strong, right? So you probably read in the recent market size deck build, and the FDA letter, right? You probably read last year, Lilly had a letter from the FDA approval. So quality is actually really important. Quality control is really important. And not all, not many companies can do that, right? So we believe this is the industry still, this is still like a winner-take-all market. So four or five or seven, you know, if you take 10 players, probably take 90% market share or 95% market share. So the barrier is incredibly high, although everyone want to get in... more companies.
You know, our peers have not been successful because they build large-scale capacity, and so both of those are, you know, where both of us see there's a need in the market. Now, the market is very well served, right? So if you want to compete in E, you're competing with WuXi. That's competing with Lonza. If you want to compete with M, you are competing with WuXi, Lonza, Samsung, Fuji, right? So I think with this, in the end, probably five tech companies will take over this market instead of, you know, 30 companies. Because of that, I think it's still very healthy competition. We don't see, you know, price war at all in our industry. Gene, does that answer your question?
Thank you. Second part is sort of, like, another, relatively old topic. So, your company want to diversify your, your procurement sources, both the equipment side and the consumer side. I wonder if you can share some update on the progress. I guess the general trend is you're making progress, but I wonder if there is still sort of, some lasting sticking point that's much harder to diversify or localize, to prepare yourself for any extreme long-term events. Thank you very much.
Yep. Yeah, I think, you know, we always want to make sure we have a very strong supply chain. So as I used to say, at least two, two and a half supplier. One supplier in U.S., one supplier in Europe, and a half supplier in China. And then the China supplier, we, you know, if they're not ready, we'll help them become ready. So our procurement from China is steadily increased, but it wouldn't be a big deal. I don't. You know, I think, you know, with this current environment, I don't see geopolitics will play into this field. We are still very confident of maybe 80% from global and 20% from China. And right now, it's probably more like 85% from global and, you know, 30% from China.
So we're, you know, I think that we already, we're getting to where we want to be in a sort of a balanced supply chain.
Okay. Thank you very much. One last quick one. So we talked about rivalries specifically on Samsung. Do you see their capability in some of the key measures, if you can observe from outside, getting closer, you know, surpassing the level of WuXi that you find interesting noteworthy?
We don't comment on specific company, but in general, you know, in the ADC part, we are the global number one player. In the end-to-end part, we are also, you know, getting close to where they stand. I think so. We, you know, it's very, our business model is very different. I think a lot of the-
Mm-hmm.
A lot of investors are nervous with Samsung signing a $1 billion deal. You know, I have multiple $1 billion deal in my pocket, if I go back to that page.
Mm-hmm.
That's why I said our backlog does not reflect our potential, our potential, because a lot of, you know. Sorry, trying to find that slide. So many. Slide number 17. Yeah. So any of this could give you, give me $1 billion, even $2 billion backlog. But right now, because the programs within WuXi, my clients, they're not in a rush. So our business model is very different from Samsung, where they are focused on CMO. But when you, when you. A CMO, it's almost like a win-the-molecule. So then you need to tell them, next five years, how many slots you want to do, right? You know, next year, how many slots you want to do? So you can set time and figure out a deal.
But my client, don't worry, because I have technical quality for them, right? So they just, you know, stay with WuXi. They'll tell me when due time, they'll tell me, but they're not in a hurry. That's why our business model is very different. So we, you know, we don't really. We have not really been competing with Samsung end-to-end or many programs at all, because our Follow-the-Molecule model gives us plenty of CMO contracts already. Right? So as I said earlier, on the left side, every column, every program could give us a $1 billion contract. It's just a timing, right? So on the number one, number two, number three program, we already signed the manufacturing contract. Currently, the...
Each of them is about $300 million on design right now, because they only look at the 5 years. If they look at 10 years, probably $700 million-$1 billion, right? So it's a matter of time. So I think that's why our backlog does not capture sort of the value or potential value, potential revenue from this. That's why I share with you this slide. So WuXi's business model is getting so complex, it's actually very for you guys, from outsiders, it's much harder to get our revenue. Because R&D is unpredictable, you know. CDMO is getting very quick transition, sometimes reflecting the backlog. And you have no idea what the program we're working on, right? I think that's why I, you know, I want to use this to make it, in this case, help us.
I think, you know, I live in one or two programs, but overall trend will be there. You will see many backlog partners, you will see many broad partners, you will see some biologics become very successful. So again, the funnel is our most valuable asset. But again, tomorrow, you know, if some, you know, I use top two, if top two ADCs become a breakthrough, you know, I have them. It's in my portfolio, right? Tomorrow, if CRISPR become a $10 billion franchise, I have them. Tomorrow, if cell therapies become a, you know, a hit, I have them. I think that's the beauty about WuXi, our business model. You know, this is a gold mine that I don't know how to describe to you.
Only myself, only my team, appreciate this.
...We're probably gonna run very quick on some of the questions sent in online. Well, several is on CapEx. One is about, well, given the uncertainties posed by BioSecure Act, why companies still decided to keep expanding aggressively in terms of the capacity every single year about, you know, CNY 5 billion to be invested there. And also, on Ireland facility, what has caused the break-even point to be postponed to early 2025 from previous guidance second half 2024? And all the new facilities, including those in the U.S., in Ireland, in Singapore, getting online, will be impacting your margin trend over the next few years.
Yeah, that's, that's a great, that's a great question. So overall, why would I still be, interested in expanding? We believe, in the end, I think we have overcome the BioSecure Act, we can overcome, the, sort of the geopolitical challenge. As I said earlier, our goal is to establish three hierarchy. We have a supply chain in the U.S., as a mostly as a, closer to customer, attract customer into, into WuXi, and then deliver the work either in Singapore or in China. Right? And then, the China part will be, give us the best margin profile of the, of the site, and give us a very strong, very strong, regulatory delivery and also very, very competitive cost to serve the global community. And then Singapore in between, to serve those priority markets who are very geopolitically, geopolitically sensitive.
We believe with the three powerful supply chain, another would be a very effective way of mitigating the geopolitical risk. I think. So that, that's why our board is still very comfortable to invest in it. Go back to Ireland. I think the delay of break-even by six months, purely a technical issue. I think, you know, we have a program that we run into a technical issue, and we're solving a technical issue that will delay the revenue to push the revenue to 2025. Yeah, so I think the visibility. So I mentioned to you earlier, as an example to show you for our mature, what we call mature site. The site has three years of history. Almost every site can achieve this type of operating mix.
So essentially, our China site can achieve 60% gross margin in almost every factory when the strategic fit is in there. And then, so, that, that's the beauty of WBS. That's the beauty of lean. That's the beauty of digital and automation. So if every site in China achieves the margin, and then that will help cushion all the global sites ramp up. So that's why I said every year we see about 100 to hundreds basis points improvement. So our steady-state gross margin will be around 50%, because China will be higher, and then, you know, the European, Singapore site will be low. I think then we have seen, right? So I have 20 facilities, about 10 of them already achieved this type of profile. The other 10 needs to ramp up to fill the capacity.
So basically, we have ways to make sure every facility becoming more and more efficient. I think that's something that's very hard to replicate. I attribute this success to our culture and to our people who are, you know, other company may take a long time to learn. Again, you know, for this type of drug product, most company GP margin is 20%. We're able to do 60% GP margin. It's incredible, right? And so that's why I said pursue excellence is actually part of our gene. I share with you, you know, many examples already. But during COVID, almost every manufacturing facility achieving those type of metrics. That's why, while we are investing for the future, we still achieve 50% gross margin.
Got it. And also, you have a breakdown by different stage of the revenue by different stages. Why did the revenue from the early stage project decline by 3%? And, is that because of slower project advancements or is it because there has been increasing inactivity of those some of the early stage projects?
It's probably both of them, and the most important point, probably because we're signing off the large projects first half of last year. That basically means our revenue was more, and so we don't have a smaller base to grow.
Great. I think the last question. I think we're pretty much running the call for one hour and a half. So last question about the human resources. Because, you know, if we compare the headcounts by end of first half versus, you know, end of last year, we actually see a bit of a decline. And we actually look at WuXi XDC business. They are still expanding to add about five hundred to six hundred more people by end of this year. So how should we think about WuXi Biologics at this kind of environment, the hiring strategy going forward?
Because WBS, every year, we probably can streamline, we probably can improve productivity by 5%. And then with the current base, 5% means 600 people, and then those people move to XDC. Those headcounts be moved to XDC or to a European site. So that's why you don't, we don't see dramatic increase in headcount. We instead, headcount will be very steady, very steady. So what the WBS help us improvement, it only improve the improvement then to the headcount reduction, then those headcount can transform new business, like XDC, like global site.
Great. I think that's all the questions. I know that some investors still have more questions, but let's keep it offline, and if you have any follow-up questions, send the questions to us, send the questions to the IR team of WuXi Biologics. I think company's gonna be happy to answer that. Lastly, any wrap-up comments from you, Dr. Chen?
Thank you. Again, thank you for global investor meeting. Again, right, so if you look at, you know, so again, hypothetically, the Curon deal happened in the first half, we would actually have a flat revenue, a flat net profit compared to last year, which is, you know, tremendously a good half, right? So I think that itself tells you how good the company is. We are, you know, we wanted to navigate through the complex environment. I think in the end, I think, you know, we will win in delivering every product for client. I think, you know, that's why I said, always we are a firm believer of our CRDMO model.
Our model is very difficult to replicate, so we will still want to deliver a constant sustainable high growth to the global community. Thank you.
Great. Thank you, WuXi Biologics management team for answering all the questions, and thank you for participants, investors, analysts, spending the past one hour and a half with us. We're gonna wrap up the call here. Have a good day. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.