Voronoi headed for Kosdaq as it prices its IPO after setback in March

Voronoi Inc., Korea-based developer of novel kinase inhibitors and target protein degraders, is landing on the Kosdaq as it priced its IPO of 52 billion won ($40.3 million) after it humbled its IPO scale and pricing range after disappointing results in earlier bookbuilding session in March.

The latest round over two days last week drew over 150 institutional investors in Korea and elsewhere to price the IPO at 40,000 won, the lower end of the 40,000-46,000 won, which was cut back by 10,000 won from the March range.

The competition ratio was 28 times oversubscribed, with 57 percent of the bids coming from outside organizations.

The bio name has higher credential in overseas.

Voronoi successfully inked license deals with three U.S. companies, including two Nasdaq listed firms since late 2020. All of its license partner companies were founded by former C-level executives from household names in the pharma industry like Pfizer, Roche and Eli Lilly, said Cho Si-young, Voronoi¡¯s executive for business strategy.

The humbled pricing range and weak Korean won added appeal to foreign capital.

Voronoi plans to use the proceeds to expand R&D capacity and support business operation with an aim to grab more than two new license deals each year, according to CEO Kim Dae-kwon.

Voronoi has a track record of licensing deals with four companies, three of them headquartered in the U.S., recording 2.1 trillion won in total, the highest pre-IPO performance among Korean tech companies to meet exceptional conditions for going public.

Based on its unique drug design technology, Voronoi has developed multiple molecules capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier.

The company plans to announce preclinical study results of EGFR C797S, an investigational non-small cell lung cancer drug, which is known to directly penetrate the blood-brain barrier, at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in October.

[¨Ï Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]