November 24, 2024

• 

[THE INVESTOR] Genosco, a US-based subsidiary of Korean bio company Oscotec, is gearing up to go public, according to industry sources on Jan. 28.

The company recently sent out a request for proposals to several major securities firms, including NH Investment & Securities and Samsung Securities. The new drug developer aims to pick its IPO manager and be listed before the year-end.

Genosco CEO Go Jung-sung worked as an expert in developing cancer treatment at LG Life Science. When he helmed the company, it licensed out its pipeline Lazertinib, a drug candidate for the treatment of patients with lung cancer, for 1 billion won (US$894,695) to Korean pharmaceutical giant Yuhan.

Yuhan developed this pipeline and successfully signed a 1.45 trillion-won deal with global pharma heavyweight Janssen Biotech last year. According to industry insiders, if the drug gets commercialized, Genosco will receive around US$8 million from Yuhan, which includes its royalty fees.

Due to its high potential growth, although Genosco posted around 2.3 billion won operating loss last year, industry watchers expect the company’s market value to reach around 500 billion won.

Yuhan also invested 6.5 billion won for the development of Genesco’s R&D department and received 5.6 percent stake in the US-based company. Currently, its parent company Oscotec is the biggest shareholder with 74.6 percent stake in the firm.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)