Hanmi Pharm 'Delayed Disclosure' Small Shareholders Suffering Losses File Additional Lawsuit

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Small Shareholders in January
Compensation Lawsuit Worth 200 Million Won... More Lawsuits Expected

Exterior view of Hanmi Pharmaceutical.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] After the Supreme Court ruled in favor of shareholders in the controversy over Hanmi Pharm's delayed disclosure, minority shareholders who had not participated in the previous lawsuit have filed additional lawsuits.

According to the legal and pharmaceutical industries on the 8th, minority shareholder A and others filed a lawsuit seeking damages of 206,660,000 KRW against Hanmi Pharm and former CEO Lee Gwan-soon at the Seoul Central District Court the day before.

Hanmi Pharm announced on September 29, 2016, after the market closed, that it had exported the targeted anticancer drug candidate 'HM95573' technology to the global pharmaceutical company Genentech for about 1 trillion KRW.

However, on the next day, September 30, at 9:29 a.m., it disclosed that the contract for the export of the resistant targeted lung cancer drug 'Olmutinib' (HM61713) technology, worth about 850 billion KRW, to Boehringer Ingelheim had been canceled. Minority shareholders filed a lawsuit claiming damages because the adverse disclosure was made 29 minutes after the market opened. On that day, from 9:00 to 9:29 a.m., the trading volume was 340,000 shares, and the trading amount was about 220 billion KRW.

The Supreme Court previously ruled in favor of the minority shareholders in a lawsuit that lasted over five years as of January. According to the ruling, Hanmi Pharm was ordered to pay damages amounting to about 1 billion KRW.

A and others who filed the lawsuit this time were reportedly not included in the previous lawsuit group. Yoon Je-seon, a lawyer at Law Firm Changcheon representing Hanmi Pharm minority shareholders, said, “Since all those who purchased the company's shares from 9:00 to 9:29 a.m. at that time could potentially be plaintiffs, it is expected that similar lawsuits will continue to be filed in the future.”

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