Anti-cancer drug developer PharmaEngine Inc (智擎生技) is expected to swing back to the black this year with NT$1.71 billion (US$56.45 million) in net profit forecast after the first milestone payment for sales of its new pancreatic cancer drug in the US, SinoPac Securities Co (永豐金證券) said in a report on Thursday.
Based in Taipei, PharmaEngine will receive US$75 million in the advance payment from US-based Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc in the fourth quarter this year after securing a drug permit for MM-398 in the US, the brokerage said.
The payment would increase PharmaEngine’s revenue to NT$2.29 billion this year, up from NT$37 million last year, and its profit would also rise from estimated losses of NT$110 million a year ago, SinoPac said.
The drug is currently under phase-three clinical trials in the US, EU and Asia, and SinoPac forecast that the trials would yield positive results in April because of high survival rates of patients taking the drug.
SinoPac estimated that it would take less than eight months for the company to get approval from the US regulator after the trials are completed.
“Merrimack has also initiated investment projects to build manufacturing facilities of MM-398, indicating the company’s high confidence in securing the drug permit,” the bank said.
According to PharmaEngine, once the drug is approved in the US, Merrimack will apply for drug permits for MM-398 in Europe and Asia, except for Taiwan.
PharmaEngine will have the rights to sell the drug in Taiwan after receiving the drug permit from the government, the deal said.
Meanwhile, SinoPac said that Merrimack announced last month it has started phase-one clinical trials of MM386 for treating Ewing’s sarcoma, and the drug is likely to receive a drug permit in the US by the end of this year.
Based on the deal between PharmaEngine and Merrimack in 2011, PharmaEngine can receive royalties of 15 percent from Merrimack for sales of MM386 in Europe and Asia except Taiwan.
However, Merrimack does not need to pay royalties to PharmaEngine for future sales of the drug in the US.
Eyeing the potential of MM386 to treat multiple cancers, PharmaEngine estimated that potential sales of MM386 in Europe and Asia except Taiwan could reach US$500 million a year, PharmaEngine said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the