Thelma Therapeutics requested the Korea Exchange to evaluate whether the company duly implemented its business improvement plan.
Attention is on whether the biopharmaceutical firm, whose stock transaction has been suspended since late March last year, can escape from the risk of being delisted from the stock market.
On Wednesday, the KRX said it received Thelma Therapeutics’ request for review on the implementation of the business improvement plan on Monday.
Thelma Therapeutics, listed on the main bourse Kospi, received a disclaimer of opinion from its 2020 business report audit, meeting the criteria to be delisted from the stock market.
The company filed an objection with the KRX and received one year to improve its business from April 22, 2021, to April 14, 2022. With the decision, the KRX suspended the trading of Thelma Therapeutics on March 30, 2021.
Although the grace period ended on April 14, Thelma Therapeutics is still striving to resume stock trading.
The KRX set the one year for business improvement according to the 2021 business report submission deadline.
However, Thelma Therapeutics put off the report submission until May 16, citing the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine, which explains why the company did not disclose the 2021 audit report to the general shareholders meeting on March 31.
The KRX said it would hold a meeting of the listing and disclosure committee to review whether Thelma Therapeutics implemented its plan and decide whether to delist it from Kospi.
“We will update related schedule, depending on the submission of Thelma Therapeutic’s audit report for 2021,” the KRX said.
Until the KRX’s ruling, the regulator will keep the suspension of Thelma Therapeutics’ stock trading.
In March 2021, Thelma Therapeutics announced that it would work with GC Pharma and the Animal Cell Culture Substantiation Center in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, to manufacture Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine CoviVac in a CMO deal.
However, the company has yet to disclose more detailed plans for the vaccine business.
On April 13, Thelma Therapeutics said its co-CEO Yoon Byung-hak would resign in public disclosure. The company is now solely led by CEO Yoon Jong-ki, who used to be co-CEO.