Kiwoom Securities analyzed on the 8th that a favorable environment is being created for ST Pharm across various industries. They maintained a buy rating and a target price of 100,000 KRW.
Kiwoom Securities expects positive data from the cholesterol-lowering drug Leqvio to be a favorable factor. Huh Hye-min, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, said, "On the 6th of this month at the American College of Cardiology, Leqvio was shown to significantly reduce LDL-C in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD)," adding, "This confirmed Leqvio's efficacy in lowering LDL-C levels."
He continued, "The reason Leqvio's trend is important is that it is an siRNA treatment for chronic diseases with a large patient population, uses oligonucleotides as raw materials, and significantly influences the increasing demand across various industries."
He also stated, "Geron's imetelstat (for myelodysplastic syndrome, MDS), which is estimated to be a raw material supplied by ST Pharm, is expected to receive FDA approval in the United States on June 16 this year," and added, "If Geron is acquired by a big pharma company with a wide sales network, it would also be positive for ST Pharm."
They forecast first-quarter sales and operating profit to be 55.8 billion KRW and 3.8 billion KRW, respectively, representing increases of 10% and 3% compared to the same period last year. Researcher Huh said, "Although high-margin mRNA-related sales recorded 7 billion KRW in the first quarter of last year, mRNA division sales are expected to be very low this quarter," but added, "The increase in oligonucleotide raw material supply for treatments such as atherosclerosis is expected to result in oligonucleotide sales of 34.8 billion KRW in the first quarter, which could partially offset this."
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