Alteogen decided on the 8th to transfer list on the KOSPI (stock market).
Alteogen held an extraordinary shareholders meeting on the morning of the same day at the Daejeon Convention Center in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, and passed the agenda to transfer list on the KOSPI.
The company plans to transfer list on the KOSPI after submitting a KOSPI preliminary listing review application to the Korea Exchange (KRX). The preliminary review usually takes about three months. After that, the KOSPI market listing schedule is decided in consultation with related institutions. One to two weeks later, along with the transfer listing, stock transactions are expected to take place on the KOSPI market.
Alteogen has a technology, "ALT-B4," that converts anticancer drugs from intravenous injections to subcutaneous injection formulations. It breaks down the hyaluronic acid layer in subcutaneous tissue to allow the drug to be absorbed quickly. Anticancer drugs have typically been administered by medical staff via intravenous injection at hospitals, but subcutaneous injections are more convenient because the administration time is shorter. Patients can administer an injection at home in 1 to 2 minutes.
Alteogen's technology was applied to Merck's Keytruda. Keytruda is an immuno-oncology drug that Merck launched in 2014. It treats cancer by inducing a person's immune cells to attack cancer cells. Keytruda recorded sales of $29.5 billion (41 trillion won) last year.
Sales of the subcutaneous injection formulation of Keytruda recently hit a snag in Germany. This is because a request for a preliminary injunction to ban sales filed by Halozyme Therapeutics (Halozyme), a U.S. company considered a rival to Alteogen, was granted by the Munich District Court in Germany. Halozyme said, "The court ordered Merck to halt sales of the subcutaneous formulation of Keytruda in Germany."
Alteogen believes the impact will be limited to the German market and minimal for overall sales. Kim Seon-ah, an analyst at Hana Securities, said, "The sales affected by this preliminary injunction account for only 2% of Keytruda's total sales," adding, "Even if preliminary injunctions are issued across Europe, the impact is expected to be in the 7% range of the estimated total sales for 2025–2025."