Medipost said it would establish a subsidiary specializing in CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organization) business in cell and gene therapy.
In a public filing on Tuesday, Medipost said it would change the investment method for CDMO in North America. Earlier, Medipost had said that it would make a strategic investment in a CDMO in North America to enter the cell and gene therapy CDMO business.
Instead of directly investing in a CDMO, Medipost plans to invest in CDMO business through “Medipost CDMO,” a subsidiary, the company said. This signals that the company will set up a new subsidiary. The planned investment amount remained unchanged at 70 billion won ($55.3 million).
As Medipost specifically mentioned establishing a CDMO subsidiary, the company must be speeding up negotiations with the CDMO in North America, industry watchers said. However, Medipost has yet to reveal the name of the company.
After private equity firms Skylake Equity Partners and Crescendo Equity Partners became the new largest shareholders this year, Medipost is aggressively entering new businesses, including CDMO.
CDMO business is emerging as the hottest business area in the Korean biopharmaceutical industry. Recently, Lotte Biologics joined Samsung Biologics and SK Bioscience to tap the CDMO market.
If Medipost starts the CDMO business in earnest, it will be able to accelerate clinical trials of pipelines, analysts said.
“Investors should pay attention to the commercial potential of SMUP Cell (SMUP-ia-01), an injectable intra-articular treatment for osteoarthritis,” Sangsangin Investment said in a Tuesday report on Medipost. In March, Medipost received the FDA’s reply that the company could begin a phase 2 study of SMUP Cell based on data from a Korean phase 1 study, the report said.
“If a U.S. cell gene therapy CDMO is acquired by Medipost, it is expected to produce clinical samples for the phase 2 study,” it added.
Medipost ended the local phase 1 study of SMUP Cell in 12 patients in November 2020. After starting the drug administration in March, it is working on a phase 2 trial in 90 patients in Korea.