Attention is focusing on the background as AprilBio secured about 437 billion won in "dry powder." The company, which holds more than 80 billion won in cash and has accumulated technology export deals totaling 1.2 trillion won, has moved to raise a large amount of capital. Some raised the possibility of in-house new drug development, but the company said the decision aims to accelerate research and development (R&D) by pursuing multiple pipelines at the same time while maintaining its existing business model centered on technology exports.
On the 25th, AprilBio said it raised investment from TKG Huchems and IMM Investment Group, increasing available funds, including existing cash on hand, to about 437 billion won.
The company held a board meeting the previous day and resolved to proceed with a third-party allotment paid-in capital increase totaling 346.8 billion won. It will issue common shares worth 141.8 billion won and nonvoting convertible preferred shares worth 50 billion won to IMM Asset Management and IMM Scale-up Bio No. 1 Private Equity Fund. It also plans to issue voting convertible preferred shares worth 155 billion won to TKG Huchems and IMM Startup Venture Fund No. 2.
The fundraise is expected to lead to changes in governance. The largest shareholder now is founder Chief Executive Cha Sang-hun, who holds 18.96% equity. However, once the transaction is completed, IMM and TKG are expected to become the largest shareholders, surpassing Cha.
AprilBio is a biotech venture founded in Jan. 2013 by Kangwon National University Professor Cha Sang-hun. It entered the KOSDAQ market in July 2022 through the technology exception listing program.
The company has built a business model of developing candidate substances to preclinical and early clinical stages and then out-licensing them to global pharmaceutical companies. It secures upfront payments, milestone payments, and running royalties, and reinvests them in follow-up R&D.
A representative case is APB-A1, a thyroid eye disease treatment candidate out-licensed in 2021 to Denmark's Lundbeck for about 560 billion won. It is currently in phase 2 clinical trials. In 2024, it transferred APB-R3, a candidate for autoinflammatory diseases, to U.S.-based Evoimmune for about 650 billion won. This molecule is being developed as an atopic dermatitis treatment and recently secured meaningful efficacy data in a phase 2a trial.
As such, AprilBio's accumulated technology export deal value so far totals about 1.2 trillion won. The actual upfront and milestone payments received amount to about 60 billion won. As of the end of March this year, cash and cash equivalents and short-term financial instruments stood at 82.9 billion won, so it is not immediately facing a cash crunch.
Because of this, the market also speculated that the company might shift strategy to directly develop some pipelines without technology transfer, using the large capital secured. However, the company drew a line under the possibility of transitioning into an in-house new drug development corporation.
An AprilBio official said, "So far, the company's business model has been to enhance candidate value at an early stage and then transfer the technology," adding, "This fundraising is not intended for in-house commercialization or late-stage clinical development."
The company said the large-scale financing is to expand R&D speed rather than to change the business model. While it previously developed pipelines sequentially with limited funds and personnel, it will now be able to push multiple projects simultaneously.
The official said, "Previously, we advanced one task at a time with about 80 to 90 billion won in cash," adding, "With this investment, we will expand research staff and be able to develop multiple pipelines simultaneously, which will accelerate overall R&D speed."
The company cites antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) based on the "REMAP" platform and an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treatment candidate as its most focused pipelines.
The REMAP-based ADC is a bispecific antibody-based ADC anticancer drug that simultaneously targets HER2 and PD-L1, proteins on the surface of cancer cells. It is being developed as a solid tumor treatment, aiming to reduce tumor heterogeneity and treatment resistance by combining drug delivery efficiency via HER2 and PD-L1–based immunomodulatory function.
The IBD therapy simultaneously targets tumor necrosis factor ligand superfamily member 15 (TL1A) and interleukin-23 (IL-23), which cause chronic inflammation. The company expects that inhibiting both targets at the same time can more broadly modulate diverse inflammatory pathways that drive disease than existing single-target therapies.
REMAP is a next-generation multitarget antibody platform evolved from AprilBio's existing "SAFA" platform. While SAFA is a technology that extends duration of action, REMAP is designed to allow a single therapy to target multiple disease targets simultaneously.
In addition, it is expanding new pipelines such as a SAFA-based metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) therapy and a bispecific small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapy being co-developed with Curigin. Based on this investment, the company plans to develop these projects in parallel and seek additional technology export opportunities.
However, securing more than 400 billion won in dry powder does not guarantee improved results. While the R&D expense burden has eased, performance improvement remains a task. AprilBio has a business structure with significant revenue volatility depending on technology export outcomes.
In fact, last year's revenue fell 92.1% from the previous year to 2.1 billion won, and the company swung to a loss with an operating loss of 7.2 billion won. The industry sees the potential for a rebound if the company succeeds in additional technology transfers of its REMAP-based ADC, IBD therapy, and new SAFA-based pipelines.
An analyst at a securities firm said, "Rather than seeing AprilBio as having turned toward being an in-house new drug developer, it is more accurate to say it secured a stable capital base," adding, "The key to this fundraising is that, depending on technology transfer outcomes, it can ease the burden of having to raise funds and develop multiple pipelines in parallel."