[Special Stock] Labgenomics Pursues Development of COVID-19 Multivalent Vaccine with 100 Billion Operating Profit...Significantly Undervalued

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] LabGenomics is showing strong performance. Securities firms' analysis that the company is undervalued compared to this year's expected earnings appears to have influenced the stock price. KTB Securities estimated that LabGenomics will achieve annual sales of 200 billion KRW and operating profit of 100 billion KRW this year. They analyzed that with an expected PER of 4 times this year, it is significantly undervalued compared to the PER of 25 times of five overseas diagnostic companies.

At 9:18 AM on the 26th, LabGenomics was trading at 36,550 KRW, up 15.85% from the previous day.

KTB Securities analyzed that LabGenomics' sales and operating profit are rapidly increasing due to the rising demand for diagnostic kits and diagnostic services amid the global spread of the Delta variant.

Jisoo Lee, a researcher at KTB Investment & Securities, explained, "Diagnostic-related sales are expected to grow in the third quarter as well," adding, "LabGenomics signed a supply contract for COVID-19 diagnostic kits with ‘CIAN Diagnostics,’ a testing institution located in Maryland, USA."

She continued, "According to the contract, diagnostic kits will be provided for two years to elementary, middle, and high school students as well as employees," and added, "They plan to supply not only PCR diagnostic kits but also antigen diagnostic and self-diagnostic kits, and intend to apply for formal FDA approval."

She emphasized, "Demand for kits is increasing due to the normalization of diagnostics, so additional contracts are possible," and "Sales growth of COVID-19 analysis services and diagnostic kits will continue as the number of confirmed cases increases worldwide, including domestically."

The researcher introduced, "LabGenomics has also entered the new drug development business by signing a new 10 billion KRW contract with ShiftBio for the introduction of immune anticancer drug technology based on nanocage technology."

She added, "They decided to develop immune anticancer drugs and COVID-19 vaccines using ferritin," explaining, "Ferritin is a protein that stores and releases iron ions in the body, can be used as a drug delivery vehicle, and has very high avidity, enabling the development of therapeutics based on drug conjugation."

She said, "Ferritin can attach 24 desired antigens through structural modification and is mainly being developed as a multivalent vaccine," and "The first pipeline is the CD47-targeting immune anticancer drug (LGPS01)."

She analyzed, "CD47 is a target that sends a 'don't attack' signal on the surface of cancer cells, preventing immune cells from fighting against cancer cells," and "Recently, Pfizer acquired a CD47-targeting immune anticancer drug developer for 2.3 billion USD, increasing interest in CD47 inhibitors."

She explained, "In addition to the CD47-targeting immune anticancer drug, they are developing a COVID-19 multivalent vaccine (LGPV01)," and "Since it can attach multiple antigens, it is considered competitive in responding to variants." They plan to apply for Phase 1 clinical trials within this year, complete Phase 3 trials by the end of next year, and launch the product in 2023.

The researcher emphasized, "They are making various new investments and strengthening both the existing diagnostic kit business and the PGS business," and "We expect an increase in corporate value."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.