'AI New Drug Development' Pharos iBio, Demand Forecast... Will It Be an Opportunity to Reevaluate Syntekabio?

Pharos iBio, an AI-based new drug development company, is pursuing an initial public offering (IPO), drawing increased attention to Syntekabio, which has a similar business model. Recently, newly listed companies entering the domestic stock market have shown a tendency for their stock prices to surge, with an increasing number of cases confirming an offering price exceeding the upper limit of the expected range during demand forecasting. If Pharos iBio confirms a high offering price in the demand forecast, it is expected that Syntekabio's corporate value will be re-evaluated.

Pharos iBio will conduct demand forecasting for institutional investors over two days, from the 10th to the 11th. The expected offering price range is 14,000 to 18,000 KRW, and the anticipated market capitalization after listing is 182.8 billion to 235.1 billion KRW. The offering price will be finalized based on the demand forecasting results.

The stock price fluctuation range on the first day of listing for newly listed companies is 60% to 400% based on the offering price. Interest in Pharos iBio is likely to continue from demand forecasting through the public subscription and up to the listing day.

Pharos iBio is developing treatments for rare and intractable diseases using its AI and big data-based new drug development platform, "Chemiverse." Its pipeline includes an acute myeloid leukemia treatment (PHI-101) and a malignant melanoma treatment (PHI-501).

Korea Investment & Securities, the lead underwriter, selected Yuhan Corporation, Ilyang Pharmaceutical, Handok, and Hanmi Pharmaceutical as comparable companies to estimate Pharos iBio's appropriate corporate value. The corporate value was calculated based on the average price-to-earnings ratio (PER) of 32.1 times of the comparable companies and Pharos iBio's estimated net profit for 2025. Korea Investment & Securities assessed Pharos iBio's corporate value at 422.6 billion KRW, with a per-share valuation of 32,357 KRW. Applying a discount rate of 44.4% to 56.7%, the expected offering price range was proposed as 14,000 to 18,000 KRW.

Researcher Park Jong-sun of Eugene Investment & Securities analyzed, "Pharos iBio has secured multiple pipelines based on its AI platform," adding, "Using its proprietary AI platform Chemiverse, it has established five pipelines." He further noted, "PHI-101 and PHI-501 have received orphan drug designation approval from the U.S. FDA," and "PHI-101 is currently undergoing Phase 1 clinical trials for acute myeloid leukemia and ovarian cancer."

If Pharos iBio goes public, interest in the appropriate corporate value of Syntekabio, which develops new drugs using AI, is likely to increase. Syntekabio provides AI new drug platform services such as the synthetic new drug candidate discovery platform "DeepMatcher," the neoantigen prediction platform "NEO-ARS," and the AI drug cloud service "STB Cloud." Among over 100 effective substances discovered through DeepMatcher, some have confirmed efficacy in preclinical results. Attention is also focused on the possibility of entering clinical trials independently and technology exports.

Researcher Heo Seon-jae of SK Securities explained, "The reason to pay attention to Syntekabio from the second half of this year is that sales from the cloud AI new drug development platform will begin," adding, "The DeepMatcher 2.0 version, which improved candidate substance search performance by more than five times, was launched in the third quarter of last year."

He continued, "The cloud service, which improved accessibility and speed, was launched in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of last year," and "Positive potential customer demand was confirmed in the first half of this year through participation in international events."

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