[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] ABL Bio, a bispecific antibody specialist company, has achieved a turnaround to profitability by driving rapid sales growth through technology licensing.
On the 13th, ABL Bio announced that its provisional consolidated sales for last year reached 67.308 billion KRW, marking an astonishing 1162% increase compared to 5.3 billion KRW the previous year. Operating profit and net income, which had been in deficit for several years, also turned positive. Operating profit was recorded at 908 million KRW, and net income at 3.2963 billion KRW.
The company attributed this sharp increase in sales and profits mainly to the $75 million (approximately 95.3 billion KRW) upfront payment and $20 million (approximately 25.4 billion KRW) milestone payments received from global big pharma Sanofi in January last year for the technology transfer of 'ABL301'. Milestone payments of $6 million from Compass Therapeutics and an undisclosed milestone amount from CStone Pharmaceuticals were also recognized as revenue.
Additionally, a milestone payment of $25 million from Sanofi, received upon the first patient dosing in the US Phase 1 clinical trial of ABL301, is expected to be recognized as revenue this year, raising expectations for strong performance in the current year as well.
However, expenses also increased significantly last year. The company analyzed that the foreign exchange loss on foreign currency assets increased due to receiving contract and milestone payments under a strong dollar environment followed by a decline in the KRW-USD exchange rate. Furthermore, the increase in production costs for clinical trial drugs related to pipelines that began clinical trials last year or are preparing to enter trials this year was also a contributing factor.
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