[Featured Stock] DXVX, Long-Term mRNA National Project... Hanmi's Lim Jong-yoon Expected to 'Prove' Management Competence

DXVX is showing strong performance. The news that it has been selected as a joint research institution for the 1st Korean-style ARPA-H project, "Development of room-temperature ultra-long-term storage mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccine materials and mass production process technology," appears to be influencing its stock price. The Korean-style ARPA-H project is a national research and development initiative for innovative challenges in the healthcare sector, benchmarked after the U.S.

As of 10:43 AM on the 30th, DXVX was trading at 2,685 KRW, up 375 KRW (16.23%) from the previous trading day.

Led by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, the Korean-style ARPA-H (Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health) project is a research program established to solve healthcare challenges. It is a Korean project modeled after the U.S. government's APRA-H project in the healthcare sector.

In this Korean-style ARPA-H project, DXVX is undertaking a task to develop room-temperature ultra-long-term preservation mRNA vaccine technology that strengthens national health security and enables rapid response to pandemic situations. The project is led by Professor Seungsoo Oh of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology and his chemical engineering research team, with DXVX, Korea University, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Ewha Womans University, and Seoul Asan Medical Center participating as joint research institutions. After developing vaccine technology through this project, commercialization will be carried out by DXVX.

This project will receive a total research fund of 8.5 billion KRW over five years, with 1.5 billion KRW in phase 1, 5 billion KRW in phase 2, and 2 billion KRW in phase 3. DXVX has been developing mRNA vaccines, including LNP (lipid nanoparticle) technology, in collaboration with Pohang University of Science and Technology. In this project, it will play a central role in mRNA vaccine validation and commercialization.

Kyu-chan Kwon, CEO of DXVX, said, "Based on the expertise accumulated in precision medicine fields such as genome integrity analysis technology, we will play a pivotal role in this project. We will actively commercialize room-temperature ultra-long-term preservation technology and mass production process technology for mRNA vaccines to lead domestic vaccine development and grow into a global standard for mRNA vaccine platforms."

The largest shareholder of DXVX is Jong-yoon Lim, an inside director of Hanmi Science. The largest shareholder's stake is 19.36%. On this day, Hanmi Science's stock price surged. This is interpreted as the owner family’s management rights dispute intensifying as the extraordinary shareholders' meeting approaches in a month.

The major shareholder trio consisting of Young-sook Song, Chairwoman of Hanmi Group, Joo-hyun Lim, Vice Chairman of Hanmi Science and Hanmi Pharm, and Dong-guk Shin, Chairman of Hanyang Precision, requested the shareholder registry for Hanmi Science’s extraordinary shareholders' meeting. They are currently engaged in a management rights dispute with the brothers Jong-yoon Lim, inside director of Hanmi Science, and Jong-hoon Lim, CEO of Hanmi Science.

It is analyzed that DXVX’s performance could influence the demonstration of Director Jong-yoon Lim’s management capabilities.