[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] Hanyang Securities evaluated Jinwon Life Sciences on the 17th as a practical beneficiary of the opening of the gene therapy (mRNA) market.
Oh Byungyong, a researcher at Hanyang Securities, stated in a report on the same day, “Jinwon Life Sciences owns a cGMP-grade factory that contracts the production of ‘Plasmid DNA,’ a key raw material for gene therapy, through its US subsidiary ‘VGXI,’” and introduced it as “a gene therapy contract manufacturing organization (CMO) company that is not yet well known in the stock market.”
Plasmid DNA is not only a core raw material for the production of viral vectors, which are the mainstream of gene therapy, but also a major raw material for mRNA, whose market has recently been rapidly opening.
Due to the recent surge in demand for Plasmid DNA, Jinwon Life Sciences’ existing factory has been operating at full capacity since 2019, and a large-scale new factory construction has also been underway. The new factory is scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year and is expected to start full-scale operation from the second quarter of next year.
The existing factory has a scale of 500L, and once the new factory is completed, it will be 10 times larger at 5000L. There are plans to expand further to 7500L in the future.
Researcher Oh said, “As the gene therapy market grows, there is currently a shortage of supply of Plasmid DNA, the raw material for mRNA,” and “Moreover, with the emergence of mRNA vaccines starting from Moderna and Pfizer this year, the supply shortage is expected to worsen.”
He added, “According to Jinwon Life Sciences, there are a considerable number of clients that could not be accommodated due to the capacity shortage of the existing factory, and naturally, there is a large waiting demand for the new factory,” and explained, “Jinwon Life Sciences expects the new factory to be fully operational from 2022 and anticipates annual sales exceeding 500 billion KRW.”
Furthermore, he analyzed, “Since Jinwon Life Sciences produces cGMP-grade Plasmid DNA, a raw material that any mRNA developer would need, it can be expected to directly benefit from the mRNA market, which will grow for decades to come,” and “It is by far the practical beneficiary among Korean companies.”
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