Daily Brief Health Care: Takeda Pharmaceutical, Alteogen Inc, Viva Biotech Holdings and more

In today’s briefing:

Takeda: Clinical Development of HUTCHMED’s Fruquintinib Progressing Well
Alteogen (196170 KS): Milestone Payments and Pipeline Progress Strengthen Business Growth Prospect
Viva Biotech Holdings (1873.HK) – The Restructuring Plan Would Not Turn Things Around

Takeda: Clinical Development of HUTCHMED’s Fruquintinib Progressing Well

HUTCHMED developed Fruquintinib has demonstrated positive results in a Phase III FRESCO-2 study which reduced the risk of death by 34% in patients with previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer.
In addition, Fruquintinib also has been validated and accepted for regulatory review (for marketing authorization) by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) last week.
In January 2023, Takeda Pharmaceutical (4502 JP) entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with HUTCHMED to further develop and commercialise Fruquintinib outside of Mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong.

Alteogen Inc (196170 KS)‘s partner has submitted marketing application for Herceptin biosimilar in China. Alteogen will be entitled for royalty after the product is approved and sold in China.
In April 2023, Alteogen announced that the company will receive additional milestone of $3 million (~KRW4 billion) from its first ALT-B4 technology transfer partner.
Alteogen has completed patient recruitment for global phase 3 trial for Eylea biosimilar. Marketing application is expected to be filed in early 2024, with marketing expected to start from 1H25.

In the past few years, the investment business and M&A of Viva accelerated based on a series of financing tools such as IPO/placement/convertible bonds. Thus, Viva’s scale has grown rapidly.
Continuous decline in stock price ultimately triggered a “redemption crisis” for Viva’s convertible bonds.Although Viva resolved it by transferring equity in its CRO subsidiary, the prospects are still not optimistic.
Due to the downturn in innovative drug industry and deterioration of financing environment,whether the high valuation of Viva’s CRO business would be recognized by secondary market is a question mark.

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