ABL Bio, a company specializing in dual antibody technology, is expected to break the annual sales of 100 billion won for the first time this year.
The annual sales surpassing 100 billion won is considered an important growth stage and milestone for domestic corporations. In particular, among pharmaceutical and biotech companies that face lengthy periods and significant expenses for new drug development, there are many corporations that have yet to generate revenue even after five years since listing on the KOSDAQ under special technology provisions.
According to ABL Bio on the 13th, cumulative sales for the first half of this year were 77.8 billion won, and operating profit was 11.7 billion won. In the second quarter, consolidated sales reached 75.7 billion won, and operating profit was 40.7 billion won, marking the highest quarterly performance ever. This already surpassed last year's annual sales of 33.4 billion won.
Securities information company FnGuide estimated ABL Bio's annual performance forecast (consensus) for this year at 119.7 billion won in sales and 25.8 billion won in operating profit.
Founded in 2016, ABL Bio was listed on the KOSDAQ under special technology provisions in 2018. The company has yet to successfully commercialize a therapeutic product. Currently, the company's performance growth is driven by its success in technology exports.
ABL Bio owns the 'Grabody-B' platform technology for penetrating the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier allows oxygen and nutrients to pass while blocking larger substances from reaching the brain. Grabody-B is a technology that delivers antibodies directly to the brain.
In April, ABL Bio signed a contract with British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to transfer its brain delivery platform technology, receiving an upfront payment of about 74 billion won. GSK invested in the development of a treatment for degenerative brain diseases using ABL Bio's technology, with the total scale of the technology transfer agreement reaching up to 4.1 trillion won.
The future corporate value and performance of this company also hinge on its technology exports and development outcomes. The company stated that its global clinical trials for major pipelines under development are progressing smoothly.
The dual antibody immuno-oncology drug 'ABL001 (ingredient name: tobesimog) that is under development has been transferred by the company to global partner Compass Therapeutics, which is currently conducting global phase 2 and 3 clinical trials.
On that day, the company announced that there were fewer deaths than previously expected in the ongoing phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of ABL001, which is being conducted on patients with advanced biliary tract cancer in combination with the existing chemotherapy drug paclitaxel.
Lee Sang-hoon, CEO of ABL Bio, noted that "patients participating in the phase 2 and 3 trials of ABL001 are showing encouraging survival rates, more optimistic than expected at the design stage of the clinical trial," and added, "The investigator-initiated trial (IST) being conducted at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in the U.S. is also progressing smoothly."
The candidate substance for a Parkinson's disease treatment based on Grabody-B exported to Sanofi in 2022, 'ABL301', is also reported to be in the final stages of phase 1 trials. The market is paying attention to whether ABL301 has overcome the side effect issues.
Kim Jun-young, a pharmaceutical and biotech specialist researcher at MERITZ Securities, explained, "Other drugs targeting the same area have consistently shown blood sugar-related side effects in clinical trials, and it is crucial to see whether ABL301 has mitigated the risk of hyperglycemia." Huh Hye-min, a pharmaceutical and biotech specialist researcher at Kiwoom Securities, projected that "if phase 1 safety data for ABL301 is secured, it could gain traction for additional technology transfers."
Kiwoom Securities raised its target price for ABL Bio to 100,000 won on the 11th, while MERITZ Securities raised it to 90,000 won at the end of last month. This judgment reflects expectations for ABL301's clinical results and further technology transfers.