PeopleBio, a Korean biotech company specialized in blood-based diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, will join the Kosdaq market next month with public subscriptions on Oct. 7-8 after pricing public offering at a band of 25,000 won to 30,000 won. ($25.6)

The company, which is looking to expand its test kit business in Southeast Asia and advanced markets, would be able to raise 15 billion won ($12.8 million) from the IPO when priced at the top end.

Founded in 2002, PeopleBio has developed blood-based diagnostic kits to test neurodegenerative diseases and earned fame for a commercial development of the world’s first blood testing kit to enable early detection of Alzheimer`s disease in 2018.

This kit realizes early detection of Alzheimer`s whose pathology is known to begin about 15 years prior to the onset of related symptoms, PeopleBio’s chief executive Kang Sung-min said during a recent virtual media conference. The disease affects more than 50 million people around the world as of 2018.

The company’s technology can diagnose Alzheimer`s in its early stages in a non-invasive and affordable manner, helping slow the progression with a mitigating intervention, he said.

PeopleBio’s test kits are now available at health screening centers of large private hospitals in Korea and a pilot project is underway in cooperation with public health centers. The company recently began clinical supply to large hospitals in the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. It is aiming to obtain a CE mark this year to make inroads into advanced markets.

PeopleBio’s proprietary diagnostic technology is called Multimer Detection System (MDS), which is sandwich assay using capturing antibodies and epitope-overlapping detection antibodies for the detection of only oligomers or multimers from monomers in protein-misfolding diseases. The IPO is designed to increase its production capacity and bolster overseas marketing, Kang said.

Financial performance is still weak, but outlook remains strong. Kiwoom Securities, the IPO lead manager, said in an IPO statement that the company’s operating loss reached 1.8 billion won over sales of 300 million won in the first half, but projected 43.8 billion won in sales and 16.2 billion won in operating profit in 2022.

By Park Jae-young and Minu Kim

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