Attention is on whether a biotech breeze will blow through the KOSDAQ market in the fourth quarter. Recently, domestic bio and healthcare corporations have been hurrying their initial public offering (IPO) preparations with the goal of listing on KOSDAQ within the year. Experts said the key will be to prove proprietary technological prowess rather than merely touting the number of drug candidates.
According to IR Qdous, an IR (investor relations) specialist, and the industry on the 17th, four companies—Curiosis, AimedBio, Rznomics, and QuadMedicine—have filed securities registration statements, aiming to list on KOSDAQ within the year.
Curiosis, a corporations in materials, parts, and equipment in the life sciences field, will conduct book building from Oct. 27–31 with a target of listing within the year. The company is targeting the lab market with life science research automation equipment.
AimedBio, an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) new drug developer spun off from Samsung Medical Center in 2018, plans to take subscriptions for two days starting Nov. 13. Based on the desired offering price, the market capitalization is 577.4 billion–705.7 billion won.
QuadMedicine, a medical microneedle platform corporations, passed its preliminary listing review on Sept. 29 and filed a securities registration statement with the Financial Supervisory Service on Oct. 2. After conducting institutional investor book building Nov. 14–20, it plans to finalize the offering price and take general subscriptions on Nov. 25 and 26.
Rznomics, a ribonucleic acid (RNA)-based gene therapy developer, also filed a securities registration statement last month to list on KOSDAQ. It plans to list on KOSDAQ within the year after book building and subscriptions in November.
Since JPI Healthcare's listing on Aug. 21, there had been no bio and healthcare corporations entering KOSDAQ for about a month, but a large number of domestic bio and healthcare corporations have appeared in the fourth-quarter IPO market.
According to IR Qdous, from January to August this year, 15 bio and healthcare corporations succeeded in listing on KOSDAQ. Last year, 18 companies entered KOSDAQ. If three or more companies succeed in listing in the fourth quarter, last year's level will be maintained.
With the stock market slump continuing last year, a chill settled over the IPO market. While the domestic stock market has been rebounding this year, the warmth has not yet spread to the bio and healthcare sector. The number of corporations that applied for preliminary listing reviews with the Korea Exchange by the end of August last year and this year was 194, of which 48 withdrew or were not approved.
The industry is watching whether fourth-quarter IPO corporations will draw strong demand and whether investment sentiment in the bio and healthcare sector will grow. In particular, because most biotech corporations pursue special technology listings while in the red, the technology evaluation is a crucial gateway.
Kwon Hyun-cheol, Director on the Korea Exchange's Innovation Growth Support Team, noted, "There are many cases where companies submit a large number of patents that have little relevance to the technology they actually emphasize, or bring in an excessive number of pipelines (new drug development projects) whose efficacy has not been verified."
Kwon said, "You should not simply lead with the number of researchers or the volume of technologies and pipelines," adding, "What is needed is to prove with objective data the technology and growth potential that can gauge whether the technology, not just in the lab, can actually generate profits in the market."