October 30, 2024

• 

South Korean biotech firm Bridge Biotherapeutics announced Oct. 25 that it had received preliminary screening approval for Kosdaq listing.

The company applied for approval Sept. 3 and expects to be listed on the second-tier Kosdaq market in December this year.

“We will continue to develop and advance our business model even after going public to reach out to a wider range of innovative drug markets, create new opportunities, and increase the speed and efficiency of new drug development,” Bridge Biotherapeutics CEO Lee Jung-ku said in a statement.

Lee, the co-founder of CrystalGenomics, established the no-research-development-only firm Bridge Biotherapeutics in 2015. Most recently, the Korean biotech firm announced that it had successfully signed a contract with German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim to license out its drug candidate BBT-877. The drug candidate is expected to be used to treat diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

This is the company’s second attempt to get listed on the Kosdaq market. Last year, the company chose KB Securities as its sole IPO manager and applied under relaxed standards that allow the listing of promising companies that have not yet posted significant profits, but failed to go public in May.

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