[Market Focus] Curiox Biosystems Surges on Expectations of Sales Growth

As of 10:37 a.m. on August 8, shares of Curiox Biosystems (hereafter Curiox) were trading at 49,500 won on the KOSDAQ market, up 23.29% from the previous day's closing price. The surge appears to be driven by expectations of sales growth, despite the absence of any particular issue.

Curiox develops and sells automated cell preprocessing devices that are essential in new drug development using cells and in vitro diagnostics. The main advantage of these devices is that they can deliver consistent cell processing results, compared to the manual preprocessing methods adopted by most companies.

Last year, Curiox reported sales of 4.6 billion won and a net loss of 8.1 billion won. However, expectations for sales growth remain high. At the end of last year, Curiox partnered with global life science equipment company Revvity to begin production of the next-generation cell analysis product "Pluto." Revvity, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has a market capitalization of 20 trillion won.

Curiox CEO Kim Namyong recently stated in a media interview, "The market response to the 'Pluto Series' has been positive, and we are in contract discussions with four of the world's leading liquid handling automation workstation manufacturers." He added, "Given the current status of these contracts, we expect to reach the break-even point (BEP) this year." Curiox has previously estimated the global market for manual cell analysis using centrifuges at approximately 19 trillion won, and has set a long-term goal of capturing at least 30% and up to 50% of this market.

Meanwhile, on July 28, Curiox announced the exercise of conversion rights for convertible bonds (CB) worth 10 billion won. This represents 2.89% of the total listed shares (16,162,602 shares), with the listing date scheduled for August 19.