Maintaining 'one license-out per year' pace since pivot two years ago; new-target assets lined up for partnering

Strategy of transferring rights before costly clinical stages — 'first-in-class competitiveness firmly established'

Cosmetics sales target of 20 billion won this year; building profitable structure to overcome biotech's inherent limits

Genome&Company CEO Hong Yu-seok speaks with The Herald Business on Wednesday (local time) in San Diego. [Choi Eun-ji]
Genome&Company CEO Hong Yu-seok speaks with The Herald Business on Wednesday (local time) in San Diego. [Choi Eun-ji]

"As a drug development company, we will continue to deliver license-out results from our differentiated first-in-class pipeline while pushing cosmetics business sales above 20 billion won ($13 million) this year to break even. We will establish a stable cash flow structure — the one persistent challenge for any biotech — and lay the groundwork for sustainable profitability."

Hong Yu-seok, chief executive of Genome&Company, laid out the company's global partnering progress and medium-to-long-term path to profitability in an interview Wednesday (local time) on the sidelines of the 2026 BIO International Convention in San Diego.

At BIO USA, Genome&Company is conducting a series of partnering meetings aimed at licensing out its next-generation antibody and antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) pipeline, including novel-target immuno-oncology candidates. Since pivoting away from its earlier microbiome-focused business model toward antibodies and ADCs, the company has adhered to a pragmatic strategy of early-stage license-outs at the preclinical phase.

"When we made the pivot two years ago, we publicly committed to closing roughly one license-out per year at the preclinical stage — and we delivered one deal in 2024 and another last year," Hong said. "As I outlined at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference earlier this year, our immediate goal is to complete one to two additional license-outs this year and next. Most of the key data needed for partnering is already in hand, and discussions with global companies are advancing."

The shift toward early license-outs is a deliberate strategy to get ahead of the chronic funding pressures that plague biotechs. For antibody drugs and ADCs, the IND-enabling stage — the final stretch of preclinical work — and entry into Phase 1 trials demand enormous capital outlays. The approach, as demonstrated by previous asset sales to Debiopharm and Ellipsis, is to hand off rights to a well-resourced global partner before risks and costs escalate, enabling shared growth.

What draws major global pharmaceutical companies to Genome&Company's pipeline is its ability to identify novel targets. "We already have a track record of discovering two novel targets through our proprietary Genocl platform and successfully licensing them out," Hong said. "Global pharmaceutical companies are showing strong interest in first-in-class compounds with clear differentiation, rather than best-in-class strategies in already-crowded spaces — so even at an early development stage, the partnering outlook is very positive."

Genome&Company is also running what it calls a "dual engine" that sets it apart from typical biotechs. Rather than depending solely on the unpredictable timing of drug license-out revenues, the company has built its cosmetics business — which draws on its microbiome technology — into a core cash-generating operation.

"Last year we recorded about 12 billion won in cosmetics sales, confirming the market potential, and this year we are on track to surpass 20 billion won," Hong said. "Hitting that target will push the cosmetics division clearly past breakeven. From there, we plan to scale the division to 50 billion won and eventually 100 billion won in sales, reinvesting the recurring profits into drug development research — completing a virtuous cycle of profitability."


silverpaper@heraldcorp.com