Record High After Listing... Roche to Launch New Products Within the Year
Blowing Technology Transferred to Roche... Royalty Income Until 2039
Conservative Estimate Operating Profit 150 Billion Won by 2029
Since BioDine was listed on the KOSDAQ market in 2021, it has reached an all-time high again. The revision of the cervical cancer prevention guidelines by the World Health Organization (WHO) raised expectations that BioDine would benefit, driving up its stock price.
According to the financial investment industry on the 27th, BioDine's stock price rose 92% over four months since June. Considering that the KOSDAQ index fell 7% during the same period, the market-relative return reached 99 percentage points (P). On the 25th, it hit an intraday high of 18,460 KRW, marking an all-time high.
BioDine is a company that develops liquid-based cytology (LBC) equipment and reagent kits for cancer diagnosis. Liquid-based cytology is widely used for diagnosing cervical cancer. BioDine secured a patent for its independently developed Blowing Technology. Blowing is a technique that uses air pressure to spread liquid-based cytology specimens evenly on slides.
The world's leading in vitro diagnostics company, Roche, has verified and decided to adopt BioDine's Blowing Technology over a long period. In February 2019, they signed a technology transfer agreement. Researcher Sunyoung Park from Mirae Asset Securities explained, "After six years of technology verification and transfer with Roche, a 20-year exclusive long-term contract was signed," adding, "BioDine will receive a fixed royalty per vial of LBC solution sold."
Roche plans to launch its own LBC equipment applying BioDine's technology within this year. Once Roche begins full-scale equipment sales and testing services next year, BioDine's sales are expected to increase accordingly.
Considering Roche's credibility and sales network in the global cervical cancer diagnostic market, the royalty scale is expected to reach hundreds of billions of KRW. Researcher Haesoon Kwon from Eugene Investment & Securities stated, "Based on the high accuracy and sensitivity of diagnostic kits produced using BioDine's technology, Roche's market share is expected to exceed 40% by 2029," and added, "Since most of the revenue comes from sales royalties, profitability will be very high."
BioDine mentioned that its Blowing Technology can be applied to other diagnostic methods beyond cytology, projecting that annual revenue from Roche will exceed 150 billion KRW. Researcher Hyemin Heo from Kiwoom Securities forecasted, "Even with conservative estimates for 2029, sales will reach 200 billion KRW and operating profit 150 billion KRW," and analyzed, "Assuming 80% of operating profit translates to net income, the appropriate market capitalization is around 820 billion KRW."
Recently, WHO revised the cervical cancer prevention guidelines. Previously, patients who tested positive for human papillomavirus (HPV) had to undergo colposcopy, but the revised guidelines added Roche's CINtec PLUS test as a classification test for HPV-positive patients before colposcopy. It is the only test among dual-staining tests that has obtained approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European CE certification for classifying HPV-positive patients. Researcher Park said, "Roche's position in the cervical cancer testing market is expected to expand," and added, "This will have a positive impact on the increased utilization of BioDine's technology."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
