Yuhan earns KRW253.2B through licensing-out deals in 5 yrs

Its technology serves as a steady cash cow

Yuhan Corp earns KRW 2.5 bil through technology exports in Q1… with inflow of CDMO licensing-out fees paid from its subsidiaries

Inflow of licensing out fees begins in earnest for the company from 2020... company secures USD 150 million with Leclaza

Yuhan Corp has secured a solid source of revenue with technology licensing fees.

 

Billions of won in profit have been steadily flowing in every quarter through technology licensing deals, the investing company’s development progress, and milestone payments.

 

Yuhan Corp’s cumulative technology fee over the past 5 years amounted to KRW 253.2 billion.

 

According to the company's report on the 2nd, the company's technology fee revenue in Q1 was KRW 2.5 billion.

 

This is down 64.4% from KRW 7.2 billion in the same period of the past year, but it has been 5 consecutive quarters the company has been collecting revenue since the Q1 in the past year.

 

Yuhan’s quarterly technology fee revenue (Unit: KRW million, Source: Yuhan Corp)

The CDMO technology fee it had received from its subsidiary Add Pharma played a major part in the company’s Q1 revenue in Q this year.

 

Addpharma specializes in the development of Incrementally Modified Drugs (IMD).

 

In 2022, Addpharma developed a rosuvastatin-ezetimibe combination drug and licensed it to Jeil Pharmaceutical and GC Biopharma.

 

Yuhan acquired Addpharma in 2017 for KRW 3 billion and invested an additional KRW 7 billion in 2022.

 

As of the end of last year, the company held a 67.7% stake in Addpharma.

 

The company also received a portion of the technology fee from Boehringer Ingelheim in the first quarter.

 

In July 2019, the company licensed out YH25724, a candidate drug for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, MASH), to Boehringer Ingelheim for up to USD 870 million.

 

Under the terms of the agreement, a non-refundable upfront payment of USD 40 million was made.

 

In November 2021, YH25724 entered Phase 1 clinical trials, and the company earned an additional USD 10 million in milestone payments.

 

Yuhan Corp has been receiving technology fee revenue since 2018 when it began exporting new drug technology in earnest.

 

In July 2018, the company transferred its YH14618 technology for degenerative disc disease to Spine Biopharma in the US.

 

The company received an upfront payment of USD 650,000 and a guarantee of milestone payments of USD 217.5 million based on development, approval, and sales.

 

In November 2018, Yuhan Corp licensed out its anti-cancer drug Leclaza to Janssen Biotech.

 

The total value of the agreement, including a non-refundable upfront payment of USD 50 million, amounted to USD 1.25 billion.

 

In January 2019, the company entered into an agreement with Gilead Sciences to license and co-develop a drug candidate that acts on two targets for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

 

The deal includes an upfront payment of USD 15 million and milestone payments of USD 777 million depending on development, approval, and sales.

 

In August 2020, the company entered into a licensing agreement with the US company Processa Pharmaceuticals to license out YH12852.

 

YH12852 is a small molecule drug in development for the treatment of functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorders (FGID).

 

The company received USD 2 million in Processa Pharmaceuticals’ common stock as a non-refundable upfront payment.

 

Since then, the company has been receiving additional payments due to progress in the development stage of its licensed out candidates.

 

In April 2020, the company received a milestone payment of USD 35 million from Janssen.

 

At the time, Janssen paid the additional milestone payment to Yuhan Corp after initiating a clinical trial for amivantamab and Leclaza combination.

 

In November 2020, Janssen paid an additional milestone of USD 65 million to Yuhan Corp after starting subject recruitment for its trial.

 

With the USD 50 million in upfront payment, the company has secured a total of USD 150 million through licensing deal payments with Leclaza.

 

Additional milestone payments are expected once ‘Leclaza receives U.S.

 

approval.

 

Janssen filed a New Drug Application (NDA) with the U.S.

 

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) late last year for the combination of Rybrevant and Lexarza for EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer.

 

From Q1 2020 to Q2 2021, the company recognized over USD 10 billion as technology fee revenue for 6 consecutive quarters.

 

In Q4 2020, the company recognized a technology fee revenue of KRW 77.7 billion.

 

In the 5 years from 2020 to Q1 this year, the total technology fee revenue recognized by the company amounted to KRW 253.2 billion.