Helixmith, Joining the CanaryBio Group Nest

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] Canary Bio Group is acquiring Helixmith, the first company to be listed through a special listing. Canary Bio Group is a biotech company developing immuno-oncology drugs and has been aggressively expanding its business by recently acquiring Sejong Medical and Dowon Science Pharmaceutical. Oregovomab, an ovarian cancer treatment developed by Canary Bio, is currently undergoing global Phase 3 clinical trials and is regarded as a global blockbuster-level new drug capable of generating trillion-won scale profits upon success.

Canary Bio is an NRDO (no research develop only) biotech company that acquired five pipelines from Canadian OncoQuest and is continuing their development. The main pipeline, ovarian cancer treatment Oregovomab, is progressing through global Phase 3 trials based on encouraging results from Phase 2, which showed an increase of 30 months in progression-free survival (PFS). Interim results are expected to be announced in the second quarter of 2023.

By acquiring Helixmith, which has the best research team in Korea, Canary Bio Group has broken away from the NRDO model and has dramatically strengthened areas previously considered weaknesses, such as new drug discovery, mechanisms of action, and preclinical research. Helixmith’s management also highly values the potential success of Oregovomab and is said to have expressed a strong willingness to actively participate in joint development, which is seen as a key factor in this deal. Helixmith’s R&D expertise is expected to play a significant role in the success of Oregovomab.

Helixmith’s development know-how is also expected to play a major role in the development of Bravarex, Canary Bio’s pancreatic cancer treatment that shares the same mechanism of action as Oregovomab. Development of Bravarex, which had been delayed due to a shortage of development personnel, is expected to accelerate rapidly. Bravarex shares the same platform technology as Oregovomab. The company expects the success of Oregovomab to lead to the success of Bravarex. Canary Bio is confident that both companies will achieve a win-win outcome through joint development with Helixmith.

Evaluate Pharma, a global pharmaceutical market research firm, has evaluated Oregovomab as a global blockbuster-level new drug capable of generating sales exceeding 7 trillion won, and Bravarex is expected to generate approximately 4 trillion won in sales. Considering recent emergency clinical trials showing that Oregovomab was effective even in patients who did not undergo surgery, it is expected that Bravarex, which shares the same mechanism, could be applied to 70% of pancreatic cancer patients for whom surgery is not an option.

The meeting of Helixmith, which has outstanding basic research capabilities, and Canary Bio, an NRDO company with an immuno-oncology pipeline demonstrating excellent efficacy, is expected to become a textbook example of synergistic M&A in the Korean bio industry.

A representative of Canary Bio also revealed plans to transfer additional immuno-oncology pipelines they hold to Helixmith to enhance shareholder value. They stated that they will present a new vision to smoothly resolve recent disputes with minority shareholders and dramatically improve shareholder value.

Canary Bio Group recently announced a vision to become a comprehensive bio-pharmaceutical group through the acquisition of Sejong Medical and Dowon Science Pharmaceutical. Going forward, based on the capabilities of Helixmith’s excellent research team, they plan to continuously build new drug pipelines and establish pharmaceutical distribution networks not only domestically but also in the North American market through Sejong Medical and Dowon Science Pharmaceutical. They also stated that they will build relationships within the group where all companies can win through additional M&A.