Kainos Medicine's stock price on Kosdaq shot up by the upper daily limit of 30 percent and closed at 4,615 won ($3.56) on Friday, following the announcement that its two drugs --  Ainuovirine and Ainuomiti -- won national health insurance coverage in China.

Ainuovirine and Ainuomiti contain KM-023, an AIDS treatment developed by Kainos Medicine.

KM-023, developed by Kainos Medicine, was transferred to Jiangsu Aidea Pharmaceutical, a China-based AIDS treatment developer, in 2014 through a royalty agreement. Since then, Ainuovirine has been licensed in China as a combination tablet and Ainuomiti as a single tablet.

According to Jiangsu Aidea Pharmaceutical, the Chinese market for AIDS drugs is expected to grow from 7.3 billion yuan ($1.03 billion) in 2023 to 11.2 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in 2027.

Notably, Ainuomiti, previously prescribed exclusively to new AIDS patients, is poised to expand its market share by extending prescriptions to individuals already undergoing treatment with other drugs.

In a phase 3 trial comparing Ainuomiti to Gilead Sciences’ Genvoya with 762 subjects, Kainos Medicine reported stability in AIDS patients resistant or unresponsive to existing drugs, demonstrating effectiveness in long-term treatment.

"We expect to rapidly expand supply in the Chinese market by securing stability, efficacy, and price competitiveness with the inclusion of AIDS drugs in Chinese medical insurance," a Kainos Medicine official said. "Clinical trials of major pipelines such as global expansion of AIDS drugs and Parkinson's disease drugs are also progressing smoothly."