TTY Biopharm Co (台灣東洋藥品) yesterday gave an upbeat outlook on its earnings for this year, as the maker of “super generic” drugs further secures its leading position in the manufacture of oncology and anti-infective medicines. The local company is also tapping into the market for multiple sclerosis.
Last month, the Taipei-based company announced that with Netherlands-based 2-BBB Medicines BV, it has established a joint venture company, EnhanX Inc (殷瀚生技).
The joint venture is to develop 2B3-201, a neuro-inflammation treatment initially focused on people with multiple sclerosis (MS) who suffer acute relapses, the company said.
In addition, the partnership is expected to speed up the development and regulatory approval processes, TTY Biopharm said.
TTY Biopharm said that it would leverage its 20-year experience in developing specialized injectable liposomal formulations, as well as microsphere formulations, to control drug release in advancing 2B3-201 through its product pipeline.
The drug is a targeted therapy for MS that is designed to cross the blood-brain barrier — a highly selective semipermeable membrane that separates circulating blood from extracellular fluid in the central nervous system.
Conventional treatments for diseases such as MS require large dosing to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, resulting in severe side effects, the company said.
However, its proprietary fabrication technologies are able to prevent the triggering of unwanted autoimmune responses, which helps to overcome the blood-brain barrier and effectively deliver the medicine to the brain, the company said.
Apart from its controlling stake in the joint venture, TTY Biopharm said that it also controls the proprietary manufacturing process and therefore has a significant claim on any profits the drug makes.
The company’s net income in the first quarter dropped 21.35 percent year-on-year to NT$221 million (US$7.34 million), while sales rose 3.61 percent annually to NT$946 million over the period. Earnings per share were NT$0.89.
TTY Biopharm shares yesterday gained 0.49 percent to NT$102.5, outperforming the 0.05 percent fall of the TPEX, the local bourse for firms with small and medium capitalization, the market’s data showed.
SMART MANUFACTURING: The company aims to have its production close to the market end, but attracting investment is still a challenge, the firm’s president said Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said its long-term global production plan would stay unchanged amid geopolitical and tariff policy uncertainties, citing its diversified global deployment. With operations in Taiwan, Thailand, China, India, Europe and the US, Delta follows a “produce at the market end” strategy and bases its production on customer demand, with major site plans unchanged, Delta president Simon Chang (張訓海) said on the sidelines of a company event yesterday. Thailand would remain Delta’s second headquarters, as stated in its first-quarter earnings conference, with its plant there adopting a full smart manufacturing system, Chang said. Thailand is the firm’s second-largest overseas
‘REMARKABLE SHOWING’: The economy likely grew 5 percent in the first half of the year, although it would likely taper off significantly, TIER economist Gordon Sun said The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) yesterday raised Taiwan’s GDP growth forecast for this year to 3.02 percent, citing robust export-driven expansion in the first half that is likely to give way to a notable slowdown later in the year as the front-loading of global shipments fades. The revised projection marks an upward adjustment of 0.11 percentage points from April’s estimate, driven by a surge in exports and corporate inventory buildup ahead of possible US tariff hikes, TIER economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy likely grew more than 5 percent in the first six months
The seizure of one of the largest known mercury shipments in history, moving from mines in Mexico to illegal Amazon gold mining zones, exposes the wide use of the toxic metal in the rainforest, according to authorities. Peru’s customs agency, SUNAT, found 4 tonnes of illegal mercury in Lima’s port district of Callao, according to a report by the non-profit Environmental Investigations Agency (EIA). “This SUNAT intervention has prevented this chemical from having a serious impact on people’s health and the environment, as can be seen in several areas of the country devastated by the illegal use of mercury and illicit activities,”
DIVERSIFYING: Taiwanese investors are reassessing their preference for US dollar assets and moving toward Europe amid a global shift away from the greenback Taiwanese investors are reassessing their long-held preference for US-dollar assets, shifting their bets to Europe in the latest move by global investors away from the greenback. Taiwanese funds holding European assets have seen an influx of investments recently, pushing their combined value to NT$13.7 billion (US$461 million) as of the end of last month, the highest since 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Over the first half of this year, Taiwanese investors have also poured NT$14.1 billion into Europe-focused funds based overseas, bringing total assets up to NT$134.8 billion, according to data from the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association (SITCA),