Taiwanese biotech companies are expected to see a marked increase in sales next year, as they have gradually launched new drug products or are soon to gain regulatory approval for sales, KGI Securities Investment Advisory Co (凱基投顧) said last week.
“Apart from TaiMed Biologics Inc (中裕新藥), whose HIV/AIDS treatment, Trogarzo, just hit the US market, a number of other biotech companies have developed new drugs, which are either entering phase III clinical trials or are in the midst of reviews by US and Europe regulators,” KGI biotech analyst Yang You-ying (楊又穎) said in a report on Friday last week.
The new drugs are expected to obtain regulatory permits by the end of the year and hit US, European and Chinese markets over the next few years, Yang said.
The investment advisory firm has organized forums for several biotech firms in the past month, including TaiMed, PharmaEssentia Corp (藥華醫藥), Panion & BF Biotech Inc (寶齡富錦), Lotus Pharmaceutical Co (美時化學製藥), TWi Pharmaceuticals Inc (安成藥) and Taiwan Liposome Co (台灣微脂體).
PharmaEssentia said it might obtain marketing approval from the European Medicines Agency for its new drug, Ropeg, for polycythemia vera, which is a rare blood disease, while Panion & BF said it expects to receive a new drug license next year from the Chinese Food and Drug Administration for Nephoxil, which is used to treat elevated serum phosphate levels caused by chronic kidney disease.
“Following years of integrating different resources and positioning themselves in the industry, Taiwanese biotech companies have gradually come to master the most suitable models for their future development,” Yang said.
Citing Lotus Pharmaceutical as an example, Yang said that the specialty generic drug developer has adjusted its research projects, product lineups and assets over the past few years, and started to see a positive synergy from the acquisition of US-based drug maker Alvogen Group Inc’s businesses in South Korea, Taiwan and India in 2014 and 2015.
“With lower impairment charges related to its goodwill and intangible assets portfolio, the company’s operating income doubled last year from a year earlier,” Yang said, adding that the company plans to launch generic versions of opioid addiction treatment Suboxone and multiple myeloma drug Lenalidomide early next year.
At the forums, TWi Pharmaceuticals, which develops its own high-barrier, specialty generic drugs, said it plans to boost its sales by bringing three to four new drugs to market this year and another four to market over the next two years.
The company has started to acquire other companies’ drug permits, including Ireland-based Perrigo Co’s hydroquinone skin-lightening cream, and stepped up communication with the US Food and Drug Administration, it said.
“Both Lotus Pharmaceutical and TWi Pharmaceuticals are to launch new drugs from the second half of this year to next year, which would significantly improve their profitability,” Yang said.
In addition, Taiwanese biotech firms have counted on their solid research and development capability to make inroads into some areas that require a higher level of technology but entail facing less competition from peers, a strategy that KGI Securities believes would suit local firms, such as Taiwan Liposome, who generally have fewer resources available.
Developer of a lipid-based delivery platform for nanomedicine injections, Taiwan Liposome has in recent years shifted its research focus from cancer treatment to pain management products, including TLC599, a sustained-release therapy for the treatment of osteoarthritis pain, and TLC590, an alternative post-surgery pain management therapy.
“With its proprietary drug delivery technologies, TLC [Taiwan Liposome Co] has made an effort to improve the shortcomings of current treatments, eyeing the growing demand for better and complete pain-relief therapy,” Yang said.
TaiMed reported NT$31.11 million (US$1.04 million) in combined sales in the first four months this year, a 15-fold surge from NT$2.02 million a year earlier, but PharmaEssentia’s aggregate sales in the first four months contracted by 36.6 percent annually to NT$758,000.
Panion & BF posted sales of NT$339.05 million in the four-month period, down 4.74 percent year-on-year, while Lotus Pharmaceutical saw sales grow 0.92 percent year-on-year to NT$1.997 billion and TWi Pharmaceuticals’ sales increased 9.29 percent to NT$234.65 million. Over the period, Taiwan Liposome’s sales rose 25.22 percent annually to NT$19.28 million.
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