Market capitalizations of pharmaceutical and biotech companies that went public this year have gone down, adversely affected by the depressed pharmaceutical sector.

Seven out of eight pharmaceutical and biotech firms that had an initial public offering in the first half saw their market cap reduced as of Thursday, compared to those at the time of the IPO.

Biotech and medical device companies that went public in the first half are Korea Arlico Pharm, Dongkoo Bio & Pharma, Eone Diagnomics (EDGC), Enzychem Lifesciences, Osteonic, CareLabs, Genoray, and Sejong Medical.

Out of the eight firms, Enzychem was the only one that achieved market cap growth during the cited period. The company’s market cap amounted to 724.8 billion won ($645.9 million) as of Thursday, up by 75.3 billion won from 649.5 billion won on the IPO day.

The other seven firms had market cap shrink.

EDGC had the steepest fall, with its market cap dropping to 166.6 billion won from 231.9 billion won. Dongkoo Bio & Pharma’s market cap decreased by 217.5 billion won to 182 billion won, and that of CareLabs, by 194.2 billion won to 116.6 billion won.

Korea Arlico Pharm, Genoray, and Osteonic lost 98 billion won, 70.1 billion won, and 50.1 billion won, in market cap, respectively.

Among the eight, Enzychem, Osteonic, and EDGC joined the KOSDAQ market under the Korea Exchange’s “technology exception policy,” which allows easier listing for firms with technological growth potentials.

“The companies recently listed with the technology exception policy had passed stricter listing reviews. But they were walloped by negative issues such as accounting problems at other pharmaceutical firms,” an analyst said. “If they have positive news on new pipelines next year, the investor sentiment may improve.”

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