[Featured Stock] RF Tech, World's Only Botulinum Strain Gains Value... Premium Pharmaceuticals Expected

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] RF Tech is soaring. It appears that expectations for the newly launched botulinum toxin business are influencing the stock price.

At 9:39 a.m. on the 10th, RF Tech was trading at 10,800 KRW, up 16.88% from the previous day.

The Daejeon District Court dismissed Medytox's request for a suspension of the execution of the cancellation of the product approval for three botulinum toxin products 'Medytoxine' against the head of the Daejeon Food and Drug Safety Administration. After the 14th, the cancellation decision by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety will take effect.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a preliminary ruling on the 6th (local time) banning imports of Daewoong Pharmaceutical's botulinum toxin product 'Nabota' into the U.S. for 10 years, increasing the value of proprietary strains.

Earlier, RF Tech announced that last month RF Bio successfully isolated and identified two new strains of Clostridium botulinum type 'A1' from honey obtained in the Central Asia region, completed the reporting procedure to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, and received national management numbers. RF Bio has secured proprietary botulinum strains completely free from source controversies.

A company official said, "By utilizing our proprietary screening technology named CloScreen to isolate and identify strains derived from nature, we have secured a unique botulinum strain worldwide, fundamentally preventing any controversy."

RF Bio has become free from strain source controversies raised by competitors by successfully securing botulinum strains from honey using proprietary technology. The company plans to continue research on remaining honey samples to attempt additional isolation and identification.

Additionally, the company plans to accelerate the commercialization of botulinum toxin. As of 2019, the global botulinum toxin market size was $4.9 billion and is expected to grow to $5.9 billion by 2021.

The current domestic botulinum toxin market size is about 100 billion KRW, with a total of 15 companies competing, including 8 licensed companies and those developing formulations. Therefore, resolving uncertainties about strain sources is the most important factor for global expansion.

RF Tech believes that having secured proprietary strains, it can achieve global competitiveness upon commercialization. The company plans to develop proprietary processes different from early entrants and conduct safety and efficacy verification and clinical trials.

Since last year, RF Tech and RF Bio have started the botulinum toxin drug development business, registering one botulinum strain in April last year, and by additionally registering two naturally derived strains this time, they now hold a total of three registered strains.

A company official emphasized, "We plan to proceed with botulinum toxin commercialization based on two honey-derived strains," adding, "We will mobilize all our technological capabilities, including strain cultivation and toxin isolation and purification technologies, to develop premium botulinum toxin drugs differentiated from competitors."