(Health Korea News / Changyong Lee) Duchem Bio, a company specializing in radiopharmaceuticals, announced on the 8th that it had passed the Korea Exchange’s preliminary screening approval for listing on KOSDAQ. The listing manager is NH Investment & Securities.
Duchem Bio will begin preparing for the initial public offering process along with submitting a securities report. The purpose of Duchem Bio’s pre-KOSDAQ listing is to increase corporate value by expanding facility investment through financing and securing stock liquidity. The plan is to use the public offering funds to invest in dementia diagnostic production facilities and radiopharmaceutical CDMO business.
Duchem Bio is a radiopharmaceutical company established in 2002, and its largest shareholder is Geoyoung (54.3%), a pharmaceutical distribution company. It was listed on KONEX in 2014, and its main business is developing, manufacturing, and selling radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases and cancer.
We have a total of 12 radiopharmaceutical manufacturing plants, including 6 with quality management standards (GMP), the largest number in the country, and are strengthening our corporate competitiveness by releasing diagnostic agents for degenerative brain diseases such as dementia and Parkinson’s and cancer diagnostic agents in the domestic radiopharmaceutical market. has been raised.
Related performance is also growing. Sales are on the rise every year, reaching KRW 10.9 billion in 2021, KRW 32.4 billion in 2022, and KRW 34.7 billion in 2023, and operating profit in 2023 recorded KRW 5.2 billion, a 238.7% increase from the previous year.
In particular, based on the production performance of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2013, it holds more than 90% of the domestic market share of Alzheimer’s dementia diagnostic products. Ahead of the domestic launch of the global dementia new drug Lechembe (Developer: Eisai, Biogen), which is expected to take place in December, expectations about Duchem Bio’s future performance outlook are also growing.
When Lechembe is distributed in domestic medical settings, the demand for PET/CT imaging, which requires early diagnosis prior to dementia treatment, is expected to increase, and Duchem Bio’s supply of dementia diagnostic agents is also expected to increase. Lechembe obtained domestic marketing approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on May 24.
According to the results of the 2024 Allied market research, the global radiopharmaceutical market is expected to grow rapidly at an average annual rate of 10.6% from KRW 10.7 trillion in 2023, reaching KRW 29.5 trillion in 2033, due to the launch of new diagnostic and therapeutic drugs. In particular, the Asia-Pacific market is expected to record the highest annual growth rate of 11.4% until 2033.
Duchem Bio recently acquired a 100% stake in Radio D&S Labs, a radiopharmaceutical R&D company. Based on this, we plan to strengthen our existing capabilities in developing and commercializing radiopharmaceuticals for diagnosis and treatment and speed up entry into the global radiopharmaceutical market through final commercialization.
With the acquisition of shares in ‘Radio D&S Labs’, Duchem Bio reorganized its existing research and development capabilities into ▲diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals ▲therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals ▲radiopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing (CDMO), etc., starting from discovery of new drug candidates and conducting clinical trials. We plan to focus on all stages of new drug development, including licensing.
In particular, the goal was to develop the radiopharmaceutical CDMO business and become a global radiopharmaceutical CDMO specialist company. This is to resolve the global supply shortage of radiopharmaceuticals, and the plan is to secure CDMO production facilities through aggressive investments starting next year after completing listing on the KOSDAQ.
A Duchem Bio official said, “By passing the preliminary screening for this listing, we have been able to take the first step toward entering the KOSDAQ radiopharmaceutical company through prior listing.” He added, “By successfully completing the KOSDAQ prior listing, we will be able to establish ourselves as a global radiopharmaceutical company.” “We will do our best to make it happen,” he said.
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Source: www.hkn24.com
