Antibody drugs, AI, and platform companies go public

Companies accelerate listing process

Novelty Nobility, G2GBio, and Neurophet submit IPO applications

Organoid Sciences submits securities report... IntoCell passes the preliminary examination

ImmunOncia, Genosco, and GC Genome are also waiting to receive reviews

Domestic pharmaceutical, bio, and healthcare companies are floating IPOs one after another.

 

Organoid Sciences is the first to challenge the market with its  gap technology.

 

IntoCell plans to submit a securities report as early as next month.

 

Companies in various fields, including biotech companies that develop new drugs, medical artificial intelligence (AI) companies, and drug platform developers, are also preparing their listings on KOSDAQ.

 

According to the Financial Supervisory Service on the 24th, Neurophet submitted a preliminary application for a special case for technology and growth listing to the Korea Exchange on the 21st.

 

Last August, the company received an A rating from the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, and a BBB rating from the Korea Technology Credit Evaluation, both exchange-designated evaluation agencies, about six months after passing technology evaluations.

 

Neurophet is a developer of AI solutions for imaging brain diseases.

 

Its flagship products include Neurophet Aqua AD, a software that monitors the therapeutic effects and side effects of dementia drugs, and Neurophet Aqua, an imaging analysis software for brain nerve degeneration.

 

Neurophet Aqua AD provides all the brain imaging analysis functions required for the administration of dementia drugs by quantitatively analyzing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) images.

 

It selects the patient groups who will benefit from the anti-amyloid drug before administration and analyzes the side effects and effects of the treatment process.

 

From the patient's point of view, it can reduce the risk of treatment side effects, and from the medical staff's point of view, it can reduce the burden of reading images.

 

As the effectiveness of the treatment can be analyzed, the possibility of successfully developing new drugs and the efficiency of clinical operations can be dramatically improved.

 

Neurophet Aqua AD was launched in the second half of last year.

 

Based on this, the company is also continuing to grow its external profile.

 

In 2023, the company generated sales of KRW 1.6 billion on a separate basis, an increase of 141% from the previous year.

 

The company is growing rapidly every year, with KRW 45 million in 2020, KRW 100 million in 2021, and KRW 600 million in 2022.

 

The company explained that the more prescriptions for amyloidosis treatments are made, the more Neurophet products will be used.

 

Neurophet plans to list a total of 11,476,035 shares, including 2 million shares to be offered to the public.

 

Mirae Asset Securities is the listing sponsor.

 

As a result, 3 pharmaceutical, biotech, and healthcare companies have applied for preliminary listing this year alone.

 

On the 24th of last month, Novelty Nobility submitted a preliminary listing application to the Korea Exchange.

 

The company received an A grade from two exchange-designated evaluation agencies in July of last year.

 

Novelty Nobility is an antibody drug development company established in 2017.

 

It is conducting R&D on anticancer drugs, eye diseases, and autoimmune diseases using the “one-source multi-use” strategy, which applies a single antibody to various modalities.

 

It has a fully human antibody platform, PREXISE-D, using humanized mice, and a third-generation linker technology, PREXISE-L.

 

Novelty Nobility plans to list a total of 16,914,564 shares, including 2,208,000 shares to be offered to the public, through this IPO.

 

The listing sponsor is Shinhan Investment Corp.

 

G2GBio, a developer of long-acting injectable drugs, also applied for preliminary listing on the KOSDAQ on the 18th.

 

G2GBio received an A grade from both NICE D&B and Korea Rating & Data in August last year, thus clearing the first hurdle to be listed on the KOSDAQ as a special case for technology and growth.

 

G2GBio owns the technology to manufacture microparticles as small as micrometers (㎛) called 'InnoLAMP'.

 

This is a technology that can quickly produce uniform microparticles in large quantities.

 

This has enabled CJ to secure a pipeline of products including GB-5001/GB-5112, a drug for the treatment of dementia, GB-6002, a drug for the treatment of pain after surgery, and GB-7001, a drug for the treatment of diabetes.

 

G2GBio is listing a total of 5.128836 million shares, including 665,000 shares to be offered to the public.

 

Mirae Asset Securities is the listing sponsor.

 

There are also companies that have begun their IPO process in earnest.

 

Organoid Sciences will conduct a demand forecast for institutional investors for 5 business days starting on the 7th of next month.

 

Afterwards, the final offering price will be confirmed on the 17th of the same month, and subscriptions from institutional and general investors will be conducted for 2 days from the 19th to the 20th.

 

Organoid Sciences has set out to be the first company to be listed with the super gap technology special case.

 

The Super gap technology special exemption system was newly established by the financial authorities last year, which allows companies in the fields of advanced and strategic technologies that need to be fostered at the national level, such as deep tech and deep science, to be evaluated for technological excellence based on their growth potential in the market.

 

A company can pass the technology evaluation by receiving an A grade from only one professional evaluation agency designated by the Korea Exchange.

 

Organoid Sciences

Organoid Sciences was established in 2018 with the goal of using organoid technology to overcome the shortage of organs in real life.

 

Organoid is a compound word of 'organ' and the suffix 'oid'.

 

Stem cells or organ-based cells are cultured or recombined into structures similar to organs.

 

As of the end of last year, Cha Biotech holds a 9.27% stake in Organoidis.

 

Organoid Sciences is creating a revenue base by commercializing its self-developed platform.

 

Following the launch of its spatial biology-based genetic analysis platform 'Odyssey' at the end of 2022, it launched 'Organoid' last year, a researcher-oriented organoid culture service.

 

It is also selling a drug evaluation platform 'ADIO' to pharmaceutical companies.

 

As a result, the company's consolidated sales, which were around KRW 300 million in 2021, are expected to increase to KRW 1.6 billion by 2023.

 

Organoid Sciences plans to list a total of 6,494,950 shares, including 1.2 million shares to be offered to the public.

 

The listing sponsor is Korea Investment Securities.

 

The offering structure is 100% new shares.

 

The IPO proceeds will be used to advance the company's technology and global expansion.

 

IntoCell, a biotech company specializing in antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), plans to file an IPO registration statement by the end of next month at the earliest.

 

IntoCell received preliminary approval for listing at the end of August last year and obtained preliminary approval for listing last month.

 

It took 98 business days from the submission of the preliminary approval for listing to the results of the preliminary review for listing on the Korean exchange.

 

IntoCell was founded in 2015 by Taekyo Park, co-founder of LigaChem Biosciences.

 

Park is a bio expert who earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Chemistry from Seoul National University and a doctorate in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

 

He is one of the 7 co-founders of Ligachem Bio, having worked at the LG Life Sciences Research Institute.

 

As Chief Technology Officer (CTO), he is also the person who laid the foundation for the LigaChem Biosciences’ ADC platform.

 

IntoCell has strengths in the linker, one of the three elements of ADC: antibody, linker, and drug (payload).

 

It presents its in-house developed linker platform, OHPAS, as its core competitive advantage.

 

Linkers are divided into left linkers that attach antibodies and right linkers that attach drugs, and the company has technology specialized in the right linker.

 

In addition, 'PMT' (Payload Modification Technology) is also a core platform of IntoCell.

 

It is a technology that minimizes the penetration of highly toxic drugs into normal cells by coating them with a membrane.

 

This increases the therapeutic index (TI), which is the difference between the dose at which the drug begins to show efficacy and the dose at which side effects appear.

 

CEO Park completed the development in 2021.

 

IntoCell

The main pipeline is the ADC candidate 'B7-H3' based on the Opus and PMT platforms.

 

It is expected to secure final preclinical data within this month.

 

The goal is to submit an IND for Phase I clinical trials in the first half of this year and enter clinical trials within the year.

 

In addition, IntoCell has a total of 10 pipelines, including lead optimization candidates such as Trop2-ADC, HER2 ISAC, and HER3 ADC.

 

IntoCell is also making tangible achievements.

 

Following the technology export of its platform to Swiss ADC Therapeutics in early 2023, it signed a research collaboration agreement (RCA) with Samsung Bioepis at the end of the same year.

 

The main goal is to develop ADC new drug candidates using the IntoCell platform technology for up to 5 targets.

 

Samsung Bioepis has received a lot of attention from the industry as it was selected as the first new drug development partner.

 

In addition, ▲ImmunOncia, ▲Genosco ▲GC Genome ▲Proteina, etc.

 

are awaiting the results of the examination after submitting a preliminary prospectus to the Korea Exchange.

 

ImmunOncia and Genosco are also bio-ventures that are highly sought after by investors.

 

ImmunOncia, a company specializing in the development of immunotherapeutics, is a joint venture established in 2016 by Yuhan Corp and Sorrento Therapeutics of the United States.

 

At the end of 2023, Yuhan Corp acquired all of Sorrento's shares, holding a 67% stake.

 

ImmunOncia filed a preliminary listing request in October last year after passing the technical evaluation in April last year.

 

Genosco filed a preliminary hearing request for a technical special listing in October last year.

 

Genosco is famous as the original developer of Leclaza, the 31st domestically produced new drug and the first domestically produced new anticancer drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

 

In early 2010, the company developed a candidate substance with its parent company, Oscotec, and in 2015, it exported the technology to Yuhan Corp at the pre-clinical stage.

 

In April last year, Genosco passed the technical evaluation by receiving an AA rating from two professional evaluation agencies.

 

Genosco is the only new drug developer to have received the highest rating (AA·AA) in the technical evaluation.

 

Even if the scope is expanded to the pharmaceutical, bio, and healthcare industries, there is only one company, Lunit, a medical artificial intelligence (AI) company.

 

GC Genome, a genomics analysis subsidiary of the GC Group, submitted a preliminary review request for listing on the KOSDAQ exchange at the end of last year.

 

It plans to list a total of 22.5 million shares, including 2,944,445 shares to be offered to the public.

 

Proteina, a protein-protein interaction (PPI) big data analysis company, also applied for a preliminary injunction in November last year.

 

Proteina is a bio-venture company established in 2015 that uses its own big data technology to help domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies develop new drugs.