Amid concerns that Alteogen's competitiveness could weaken as Samsung Bioepis recently secured subcutaneous (SC) formulation technology, Hana Securities on the 15th said Samsung Bioepis' technology is merely a biosimilar copying U.S. Halozyme's SC platform "Enhanze," so it is unlikely to have a major impact on Alteogen(196170)'s technological competitiveness.
It kept a "buy (BUY)" rating and a target price of 5.8 million won. On the previous trading day, Alteogen's share price was 279,500 won.
Kim Seon-a of Hana Securities said, "There appears to have been a market misunderstanding due to an article saying 'a different in-house hyaluronidase was used from the hyaluronidase used by U.S. Halozyme and domestic Alteogen,'" adding, "Although concerns were raised that the emergence of an Enhanze biosimilar could weaken ALT-B4's competitiveness, the actual details are different."
Kim said that based on the PCT patents (WO2026/142300, WO2026/142299) filed by Samsung Bioepis, the company did not develop a new hyaluronidase but secured manufacturing and purification technology to produce an Enhanze biosimilar. The representative claims of the patents concern methods for manufacturing and purifying proteins, and if a new enzyme had been developed, the claims should have covered the protein itself with a specific amino acid sequence.
She also noted that Samsung Bioepis said the technology was secured to apply the SC formulation in future new drug and biosimilar development, rather than to expand it into a separate platform business, so it is not a structure of direct competition with a platform operator like Alteogen.
In the end, the key is the technological strength of Alteogen's SC formulation. Kim said, "Alteogen's ALT-B4 can deliver more antibodies per unit than Halozyme's Enhanze and has advantages in storage stability, enabling product differentiation," adding, "In particular, even if products applying an Enhanze biosimilar are launched, as long as ALT-B4's substance patent is maintained, partner companies can exclusively secure differentiated product competitiveness, which is an advantage."
In fact, Darzalex SC and Herceptin SC, which apply Enhanze, deliver 120 mg of antibodies per 2,000 units of hyaluronidase, while Qlex, which applies ALT-B4, can deliver 165 mg of antibodies with the same enzyme amount, showing about 37.5% higher delivery efficiency, Hana Securities said.
Kim said, "In the second half, related development results are expected to be disclosed mainly by biosimilar developers such as Intas and Sandoz," adding, "It could instead serve as an opportunity to confirm ALT-B4's technical superiority."