HLB Pharmaceutical "12% Sales Increase Last Year... Quantum Jump in All Sectors This Year"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] HL Biopharma announced on the 1st that it achieved its highest-ever performance last year with sales of 40.6 billion KRW. This represents a growth of over 12% compared to sales of 36.1 billion KRW in 2019. The company explained that this growth in scale is due to the full-scale diversification of its business.

The key to HL Biopharma's high growth is the rapid expansion of its CSO (Contract Sales Organization) business. Looking at HL Biopharma's sales composition, it is largely divided into CSO and CMO (Contract Manufacturing Organization), among which the core CSO division led growth with sales increasing by more than 28%. The growth trend has continued to accelerate, and according to the company's own data, sales in March this year grew about 78% compared to the same month last year, marking the highest monthly sales ever.

Expectations for the growth of HL Biopharma, which was incorporated into the HL Group last October, are even higher this year. In February, HL Biopharma acquired the Hyangnam plant from Samsung Pharm, which is three times the size of its existing Namyangju plant, dramatically expanding HL Biopharma's production capacity (CAPA). In particular, according to the acquisition contract, most of the products previously produced at the Hyangnam plant will be manufactured on a contract basis, so this year the proportion of CMO is expected to expand rapidly following CSO.

HL Biopharma plans to focus on new drug pipeline development this year in addition to its existing contract businesses, thereby implementing a ‘two-track’ growth strategy in earnest. In March, it signed a business agreement with HuMedis of the Huons Group for the joint research and development of a long-acting injectable drug for obesity and diabetes treatment. Development has begun on a product applying the long-acting injectable production technology 'SMEB'. Since HL Biopharma holds the patent, royalty income can be expected once technology transfer negotiations begin after joint research and development.

On the 30th of last month, HL Biopharma invested 10 million USD in Verismo Therapeutics, a US CAR-T (Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell) therapy developer, becoming its largest shareholder. CAR-T therapy is a next-generation anticancer treatment that involves extracting T cells from a patient, genetically engineering them to recognize specific antigens on cancer cells, and then re-administering them to the patient. It is considered an innovative new drug technology, as terminal blood cancer patients given a single dose of the CAR-T therapy 'Kymriah' have been cured despite a six-month terminal prognosis. Verismo is developing an advanced KIR-CAR platform technology.

Jae-hyung Park, CEO of HL Biopharma, said, "Since joining the HL Group, we have laid the foundation for not only improving performance but also long-term growth," adding, "In 2021, we will make a quantum jump in all areas of contract business and new drug development by cooperating with HL, HB Life Sciences, and other bio affiliates within the group."