Alteogen (196170.KQ), a biopharmaceutical platform company, surged more than 10% during trading on Monday, reclaiming the No. 2 spot by market capitalization on the KOSDAQ.
As of 9:50 a.m., Alteogen was trading at 397,500 won, up 39,000 won (10.88%) from the previous session, according to the Korea Exchange (KRX).
The sharp rally is attributed to the signing of a major technology licensing deal with a global pharmaceutical company. Alteogen announced the previous day that it had signed an exclusive license agreement with Biogen for the development of subcutaneous (SC) injection formulations.
The deal covers the development and commercialization of two biopharmaceutical products based on ALT-B4, which utilizes Alteogen's proprietary Hybrozyme technology. The total contract value is approximately $579 million (about 867.5 billion won).
Under the agreement, Alteogen received an upfront payment of $20 million (about 30 billion won) and will receive an additional $10 million (about 15 billion won) upon initiation of development for the second product. Including milestones, the company could secure up to $549 million (about 822.6 billion won), with royalties on sales expected after commercialization.
Securities analysts view the deal not as a one-off event but as an extension of a "continuous deal pipeline." Kim Sun-ah, an analyst at Hana Securities, said, "This contract is valued at approximately $290 million per product, similar in scale to previous agreements with global pharmaceutical companies," adding that "the trend of securing new clients continues."
"Additional catalysts remain, including further contracts, insurance code approvals, and conversion of option agreements into full contracts, so momentum is likely to persist," Kim said.
With the share price surge, Alteogen overtook EcoPro (086520.KQ) and EcoPro BM (247540.KQ) to claim the No. 2 KOSDAQ market capitalization ranking. The company had ranked fourth by market cap the previous day.
