Technology exports are active despite COVID-19 outbreak

[2020 R&D Settlement] ① Performance of major pharmaceutical bio companies

Bio-venture, technology transfer 10 out of 15

Yuhan and JW Pharm, exported new drug technology for 3 consecutive years

The world is struggling with the surprise attack of COVID-19, but domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies' new drug technology export performance is very active.

 

SK Biopharm received the most down payment for the second consecutive year as it transferred the copyright to the Japanese region for a new epilepsy drug developed with its own technology.

 

Yuhan and JW Pharma have made the achievement of transferring new drug technology to overseas pharmaceutical companies for the third consecutive year since 2018.

 

The share of technology exports from bio-ventures with platform technologies such as Alteogen and LegoChem Biosciences has increased significantly.

 

◆ Bio-venture activities and new drug technology exports are '4 out of 5'

Number and scale of technology export contracts for major pharmaceutical bio companies in 2019-2020 (Unit: case, ₩100 million, Source: Financial Supervisory Service, each company)

This year, 10 domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies have signed a total of 15 technology export contracts with foreign companies.

 

Compared to last year, when 12 companies won 14 contracts, the number of contracting companies decreased by two, but the number of contracts increased by one.

 

Technology exports are estimated to be ₩10 trillion, up 19.4% from last year.

 

The driving force behind the breakthrough of ₩10.15 trillion in technology exports is bio-ventures, while the world is in a chaotic state due to COVID-19 outbreak.

 

In April, LegoChem Biosciences signed a contract with Iksuda Therapeutics in the UK to transfer the original technology of antibody-drug complex (ADC) worth About ₩496.3 billion.

 

ADC (Antibody-Drug Conjugates) is a technology that enhances therapeutic effect by accurately delivering drugs bound to antibodies to antigens.

 

A total of five contracts signed by LegoChem Biosciences for a year using original technology.

 

In May, the company passed an ADC-based anticancer drug to Iksuda and won an additional contract worth $227 million, and in October, it signed a technology export contract with CStone Pharmaceuticals in China for up to $363.5 million for ADC anticancer drugs.

 

In December, it signed a technology export contract with Pyxis Oncology in the US and two pharmaceutical companies in Japan, respectively, related to ADC anticancer drugs.

 

In the case of transferring the copyright of three ADC-based anticancer drugs to Takeda subsidiary Millennium Pharmaceuticals in March last year, it means that six contracts were signed with the same technology.

 

In addition to LegoChem Biosciences, relatively small-scale bio-ventures showed outstanding technology export performance.

 

12 out of 15 new drug technology transfer contracts signed by domestic companies this year are achievements made by 7 bio companies including LegoChem, Futurechem, Alteogen, OliX, Voronoi, Genexin, and SK Biopharm.

 

Alteogen received $16 million as a down payment when it passed the right to use the source technology for Hybrozyme to 10 global pharmaceutical companies in June.

 

The technical fee for each stage according to clinical development, marketing authorization, and sales performance amounts to a total of $3.8 billion.

 

Alteogen's original technology for Hyaluronidase is a technology that enables large amounts of subcutaneous administration of all biologics administered intravenously.

 

By taking advantage of the scalability of the original technology that can be applied to various new drug development processes, it achieved an additional contract conclusion in 7 months following last November.

 

Futurechem signed a contract for a total of €1.22 million with IASON GmbH in Austria in May for the diagnosis of prostate cancer, followed by a technology transfer contract worth about ₩650 billion with HTA in China in September.

 

In addition, it is counted that OliX, Voronoi, and Genexine have been handed over.

 

◆SK Biopharmaceuticals No.

 

1 in contract payments, JW's outstanding global technology export for 3 consecutive years Among the technology transfer contracts signed this year, SK Biopharm's epilepsy treatment Xcopri (Cenobamate) received the largest down payment.

 

SK Biopharm secured approximately ₩54.5 billion in deposit without obligation to return when it signed a technology transfer contract with Ono Pharm.

 

The milestone according to the achievement of permission and commercialization is up to about ₩524.3 billion.

 

After commercialization, sales royalties of 10% or more were guaranteed.

 

SK Biopharm secured a down payment of ₩54.5 billion this year, the eighth largest of the domestic pharmaceutical industry.

 

SK Biopharm also signed a total of $530 million worth of Xcopri contracts with Swiss Arvelle Therapeutics last year.

 

The down payment secured at the time was $100 million, which is the third largest in history.

 

It has maintained the No.

 

1 position in technology export contract payments for two years in a row by being recognized for the value of being approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as first-in-class with a new mechanism.

 

The size of the upfront of major pharmaceutical bio companies that signed a technology export contract in 2020 (Unit: ₩100 million, Source: Financial Supervisory Service)

JW Holdings' nutrient solution technology export contract was the highest in the proportion of the total amount of technology exports.

 

It has signed a technology export and supply contract for Winuf, a comprehensive nutrient solution, with Shandong Luoxin Pharmaceutical, a subsidiary of Luoxin Pharmaceutical in China.

 

The total down payment is $39 million.

 

The down payment without obligation to return is $5 million, which accounts for 12.8% of the total down payment.

 

Winuf is a three-chamber comprehensive nutrient solution that can be easily mixed and used with three ingredients such as lipid, glucose and amino acids by dividing one container into three.

 

It is composed of four lipid components, such as refined fish oil (20%), refined soybean oil (30%), olive oil (25%), and MCT (25%), as well as glucose and amino acids.

 

It is known that it contains a higher content of refined fish oil than existing products, so it contains more omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids that promote the improvement and recovery of patients' immunity.

 

Previously, there was no case of commercialization of a third-generation comprehensive nutrient solution containing refined fish oil in China, and JW Life Science signed a high-purity contract with a high proportion of down payments as it was recognized for the distinction that JW Life Sciences is in charge of producing finished products after Winuf in China.

 

It is an evaluation that it was possible.

 

It has signed a global technology export contract for 3 consecutive years, starting with the technology transfer contract for atopic dermatitis new drug with Leo Pharma in 2018.

 

◆SK Biopharmaceuticals No.

 

1 in contract payments, JW Group's outstanding global technology export for 3 consecutive years The technology transfer contract between Hanmi and Yuhan is also a meaningful R&D achievement this year.

 

Hanmi transferred the GLP-1-based dual agonist returned from Janssen back to MSD within one year.

 

It is a dual-acting treatment that simultaneously activates GLP-1, which helps secretion of insulin and suppresses appetite, and glucagon, which increases energy metabolism, and the original technology of Hanmi Pharmaceutical's LAPSCOVERY, which increases the duration of the drug, was applied.

 

The contract fee, which is not obligated to return, is $10 million, and the maximum contract size, including staged technical fees (milestone), is $870 million.

 

It was positively evaluated for discovering new potential in the field of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) instead of diabetes and obesity, which were the existing indications, leading to a new contract.

 

Yuhan made a turning point by handing over gastrointestinal disease treatment candidates, which had been pending for nearly two years, to a small overseas bio-venture without obtaining satisfactory results in the domestic II clinical trial.

 

Yuhan received $2 million of Procesa shares as a down payment by handing over the global copyright of the new functional gastrointestinal disease drug YH12852 to Processa Pharmaceuticals.

 

The maximum contract size, including staged technology fee (milestone), is up to $410.5 million.

 

After commercialization, it was agreed to receive a certain percentage of net sales as royalties.

 

Processa Pharmaceuticals, a partner, will be listed on Nasdaq after the signing of the contract, and is looking forward to further development, saying that it will pursue a phase II clinical trial in the US early next year.

 

Technology export status of major pharmaceutical bio companies in 2020 (Source: Financial Supervisory Service, each company)

However, except for SK Biopharm and JW Pharma, the share of down payments in the total amount of technology exports was only 3%.

 

While the overall contract size increased, the proportion of down payments decreased relatively as option contracts and comprehensive platform technology contracts for which the inflow of subsequent milestones was uncertain.