In early trading on the 30th, ABL Bio is plunging more than 14%. The drop is seen as a reaction to news that a Parkinson's disease drug candidate it licensed to Sanofi has been pushed down the development priority list.
As of 9:58 a.m. on the 30th, on the KOSDAQ market, ABL Bio is trading at 211,000 won, down 34,500 won (14.05%) from the previous session.
On the 29th (local time), Sanofi said during its fourth-quarter earnings release that it has lowered (deprioritized) the development priority of the Parkinson's disease drug candidate "ABL301," which it licensed from ABL Bio in 2022. ABL301 applies ABL Bio's blood-brain barrier (BBB) penetration platform "Grabody-B."
As the share price slumped, ABL Bio released the response it received from Sanofi. The company drew a line, saying, "The clinical development of ABL301 has not been suspended, nor has the contract been terminated or rescinded."
It added, "Amid increasingly fierce competition in Parkinson's disease therapeutics, Sanofi is formulating a meticulous strategy to increase the likelihood of clinical success for ABL301," and explained, "Because the specific timeline for subsequent clinical trials of ABL301 has not yet been finalized due to reasons such as the timing for establishing and implementing the clinical strategy, we inevitably used the wording that the priority was adjusted in the relevant materials."