Shares of drug maker Taiwan Liposome Co (TLC, 台灣微脂體) soared close to the daily limit of 7 percent yesterday after the company secured a sales deal for China with US-based SciClone Pharmaceuticals.
Taiwan Liposome’s stock jumped 6.84 percent to end at NT$328, while the GRETAI Securities Market index closed up 1.66 percent.
In a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the firm said it had sealed a US$39.5 million deal with SciClone for ProFlow, a drug used to treat peripheral arterial disease.
The agreement grants SciClone a license and exclusive rights in China, Hong Kong and Macau to distribute and sell ProFlow, the company said.
“China is becoming an increasingly prominent market and we are very pleased to be working with a NASDAQ [listed] company such as SciClone that has a strong presence in China,” TLC chairman and chief executive officer Keelung Hong (洪基隆) said in a statement on Tuesday.
Taiwan Liposome said it had received an initial payment of US$1.5 million from SciClone, with the rest of the money to be made up of clinical, regulatory and sales milestone payments.
Currently sold in Japan, South Korea and the US, ProFlow, which has a shelf life two times longer than other similar drugs, is expected to be on sale in China by 2016, providing the drug passes clinical testing and receives authorization from China’s Food and Drug Administration, Taiwan Liposome said.
The global market for peripheral arterial disease is about US$600 million, and China accounts for one-third of that, the firm said.
There are still about 15 years remaining before the firm’s patent in China on ProFlow expires, it added.
Heather Chang (張雅雯), an analyst at Fubon Securities Co (富邦證券), said the size of the deal was bigger than she had forecast.
She estimates that TLC would receive between NT$100 million and NT$200 million (US$3.3 million to US$6.6 million) from the deal this year, which is not enough for it to turn a profit.
“Taiwan Liposome has to generate revenue of between NT$400 million and NT$500 million this year for it to swing to the black. Thus, it is crucial for the company to acquire approval for its Doxisome [product] to be sold in Europe and its Ambil [product] in Europe and the US by this year,” Chang said in a note yesterday.
However, SinoPac Securities Co (永豐金證券) forecast that the company could receive up to NT$50 million from the deal this year, which means the company could post losses of about NT$90 million, or NT$1.67 per share, for this year due to expenditure for clinical trials.
The company reported a loss of NT$6.09 million last quarter, or NT$0.14 per share. Last year, the company’s losses were NT$187.13 million, or NT$4.75 per share.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is