South Korean biotech company Genexine said its planned merger with genome-editing firm Toolgen could not go through due to the costly bill to remunerate shareholders opting to sell instead of converting holdings in the new entity, but nevertheless assured their partnership would go on.

In June, Kosdaq-listed Genexine announced a plan to merge with Konex-listed Toolgen with a 1:1.2 ratio based on Genexine’s share price of 65,472 won ($56.06) a piece and Toolgen’s price of 78,978 won. Since the announcement, however, their share prices have spiraled down due to investors’ low appetite in the biotech sector. As of Aug. 20, Genexine’s share price stood at 51,900 won with Toolgen at 50,000 won.

According to a regulatory filing by Genexine, claims for stock purchasing from Genexine shareholders reached 3,442,486 commons stocks and 1,460,535 preferred stocks and those from Toolgen shareholders were 1,513,134 shares. The value of these shares largely surpassed the pre-set payment limit of 130 billion won by Genexine and 50 billion won by Toolgen and this excess met the contractual condition, Genexine said.

The two, however, agreed to continue their cooperation in developing an immune gene therapy drug such as universal chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) by integrating the two companies` genetic correction, immunotherapy, and gene vaccine technology.

By Kim Byung-ho and Minu Kim

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