"Alteogen, Big Pharma Lines Up for ALT-B4"

Alteogen, the top bio company by market capitalization on the KOSDAQ, revealed on the 26th that the counterparty for the option contract for the ALT-B4 technology transfer (LO; License Out) is likely to be the Australian big pharma CSL.

There is also an interpretation that the counterparty signed a priority maintenance option contract due to concerns that the LO (License Out) contract order would be delayed. This indicates that big pharma companies are lining up to take Alteogen's technology.

Shinhan Investment Corp commented on the 28th regarding Alteogen's option contract signing and stated this.

Shinhan Investment Corp stated, "Alteogen's ALT-B4 has already signed more than 10 material transfer agreements (MTA)," and added, "If the pending deals are signed with a gap of about 5-6 months, the 10th company will need a waiting time of 4 years. Naturally, no company will wait for 4 years."

They continued, "While contracts are being discussed in order, Alteogen typically requires a termsheet within 6 months after signing the MTA," and speculated, "The company that signed this option contract decided to pay the option contract amount to maintain the priority in the situation where the LO order has passed this 6-month period."

Ultimately, they concluded that "global pharmaceutical companies are paying and lining up."

They added, "Alteogen has not disclosed the product with the partner with whom it signed the option contract, but it describes it as a modality other than single antibodies, dual antibodies, and ADC, which has a history of existing contracts, and as a product with annual sales of billions of dollars. Considering that there are competing products in other modalities, it is expected that CSL's immunoglobulin IV (intravenous) formulation Privigen is the top priority."

CSL, headquartered in Melbourne, is estimated to generate about 22.5 trillion won in sales this year. Privigen is a key item expected to generate 6 trillion won in sales. Meanwhile, it is in a position being chased by Takeda's HYQVIA, which adopted Halozyme's SC conversion technology.

Shinhan Investment Corp stated, "The FDA approval of Keytruda SC and AstraZeneca's LO has delayed additional LO contracts for ALT-B4," and added, "This is because the first contract conditions after commercialization will be applied as basic conditions for contracts with more than 10 companies that are in the process of MTA, making the first contract conditions crucial, and the signing is somewhat delayed in the process of negotiating favorably."

However, they expect that "after the first LO, contracts can be made with other companies under similar conditions, so the contract term will be significantly shortened."

They continued, "The goal of signing 2 contracts this year is somewhat delayed, and the stock price is in a correction phase due to patent issues in Germany," and added, "However, patent litigation is a natural process for commercialization companies, and if existing contract companies do not return the materials, there will be no patent issues, and concerns will be alleviated through subsequent continuous LO signings."