[Edaily Reporter SONG YOUNG-DOO ] HanmiPharm(128940)has rewritten the history of technology exports in the domestic pharmaceutical and biotech sector by securing a $190 million (approximately 285 billion won) upfront payment for a single obesity drug candidate. This is the largest upfront payment in 11 years, following the 400 million euros (approximately 500 billion won at the time) HanmiPharm received in 2015 for the technology transfer of three candidate compounds to Sanofi. It is particularly significant because, unlike the previous deal—which involved a bundle of multiple candidates—this is the largest upfront payment ever secured for a single candidate compound.

Behind this achievement lies “H.O.P.” (Hanmi Obesity Pipeline), a new obesity drug project that HanmiPharm has been pursuing for a long time. Even as the group faced turmoil—including management disputes following the passing of the late founder, Chairman Lim Seong-ki—HanmiGlobal Co., Ltd Vice Chairman Lim Ju-hyun took the lead in steering the H.O.P. project and continuing development, ultimately securing a technology export deal worth 3.5 trillion won with the global pharmaceutical giant Genentech.

HanmiPharm, which made history with a global technology export deal in 2015, has once again secured a major contract for a next-generation obesity drug 11 years later, proving its status as a leading new drug developer.

500 billion won for three compounds; 285 billion won for a single pipeline

On the 24th, HanmiPharm announced that it had signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Genentech, a subsidiary of the Roche Group, for “HM17321” (a UCN2 analog), a candidate drug for the treatment of metabolic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

The deal is valued at up to $2.3 billion (approximately 3.5 trillion won). Genentech secures exclusive rights to the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of HM17321 worldwide, excluding South Korea. HanmiPharm will receive a non-refundable upfront payment of $190 million (approximately 285 billion won) and will be eligible for milestone payments tied to clinical development, regulatory approval, and commercialization, as well as separate royalties based on product sales.

Just as noteworthy as the total deal value of up to $2.3 billion is the $190 million upfront payment. The total technology transfer amount represents the maximum sum that can be received only after all milestone conditions—including clinical development, marketing authorization, and commercialization—are met. In contrast, the non-refundable upfront payment is cash secured simply by signing the agreement. It serves as one indicator of how highly the global pharmaceutical company acquiring the technology values the candidate drug at this point in time.

An official from HanmiPharm stated, “In terms of the upfront payment amount, this is the largest deal in South Korea since the 2015 agreement between HanmiPharm and Sanofi,” adding, “While the Sanofi deal at that time involved a bundle of three candidate compounds, this agreement pertains solely to the single candidate compound HM17321. Based on a single candidate compound, this represents the largest upfront payment in history.”

In 2015, HanmiPharm licensed its long-acting diabetes drug “Quantum Project” to Sanofi for a total of 3.9 billion euros (approximately 4.8 trillion won at the time). The upfront payment received at the time of the agreement alone amounted to 400 million euros (approximately 500 billion won). However, the “Quantum Project” at that time included three candidate compounds, including efeglenatide.

This time, the company secured $190 million based solely on HM17321, which is in Phase 1 clinical trials. Given that Genentech is making an upfront cash payment of approximately 285 billion won for a single candidate still in early clinical development, this is interpreted as a strong endorsement of HM17321’s technical and commercial potential.

Although domestic biotech companies have recently signed a series of technology export agreements worth trillions of won with global big pharma companies, the significance of this agreement stands out even more when comparing the size of the upfront payments.

In 2023, LigaChem Biosciences secured an upfront payment of $100 million (approximately 130 billion won) by licensing its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) “LCB84” to Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), for up to $1.7 billion (approximately 2.2 trillion won at the time). Orum Therapeutics, Inc. also received an upfront payment of $100 million (approximately 130 billion won) in 2023 when it licensed a candidate drug utilizing its Targeted Protein Degradation (TPD) technology to BMS.

The technology transfer agreement for ABL Bio Inc.’s “GrabBody-B” blood-brain barrier (BBB) shuttle platform, signed with GSK in 2025, was valued at up to 2.063 billion pounds, but the upfront payment was 38.5 million pounds (approximately 74 billion won at the time). HanmiPharm’s technology transfer agreement signed with Eli Lilly this year also totaled $1.26 billion (approximately 1.9 trillion won), but the upfront payment was $75 million (approximately 113 billion won).

In contrast to the total contract value, which runs into the trillions of won, there are relatively few cases where the upfront payment made at the time of signing actually exceeds 100 billion won. The 285 billion won upfront payment for HM17321 is approximately 2.2 times that of the LigaChem Biosciences–J&J agreement and about 2.5 times that of the HanmiPharm–Lilly agreement.

HanmiPharm also holds the all-time record: the 400 million euro (approximately 500 billion won at the time) upfront payment from the Quantum Project agreement signed with Sanofi in 2015. Even at that time, the size of the upfront payment alone placed it among the top tier of the global pharmaceutical technology transaction market. Ultimately, while domestic companies have succeeded in technology exports worth trillions of won one after another over the past 11 years, there had been no instance where a company secured more than 285 billion won in cash immediately upon signing a contract.

Narrowing the scope to new obesity drugs, HanmiPharm even broke its own record. In 2015, HanmiPharm transferred the technology for HM12525A, a treatment for obesity and diabetes, to Janssen for a total of $915 million (approximately 1 trillion won at the time) and received an upfront payment of $105 million (approximately 121.6 billion won at the time).

The total value of the recent HM17321 deal is $2.3 billion—about 2.5 times larger than the previous deal—and the upfront payment is $190 million, roughly 1.8 times larger. This is the largest deal in terms of both total contract value and upfront payment among contracts in which a Korean company has directly licensed a new obesity drug developed in-house to a global big pharma company. HanmiPharm, which set the record for global technology exports of a Korean obesity drug 11 years ago, has once again surpassed its own record.

H.O.P. Preserved Despite Management Control Dispute: The Fruits of Lim Ju-hyun’s Leadership

Another significant aspect of this technology export lies in the development process of HM17321. HM17321 is not a standalone project but one of the core pipelines within HanmiPharm’s H.O.P. project, which the company has been building to target the next-generation obesity treatment market.

H.O.P is HanmiPharm’s next-generation obesity drug project, consisting of six candidate compounds. It is a strategy to develop candidate compounds with different mechanisms of action to address the diverse treatment needs of obesity patients beyond the existing GLP-1 class.

Among these, HM17321 is a non-incretin UCN2 (Urocortin-2) analog. It addresses the limitation of existing GLP-1-based obesity treatments, which can reduce lean body mass—including muscle—in addition to significant weight loss. The goal is to develop a first-in-class new drug that selectively reduces body fat while preserving or improving muscle mass and function.

Industry observers are highlighting the significance of Vice Chairman Lim Ju-hyun’s role in the design and development of the H.O.P. project. A HanmiPharm official stated, “Although there were various challenges, including a management dispute following the passing of Chairman Lim Seong-ki, this is the result of continuing research and development to the end without losing sight of HanmiPharm’s core identity as a new drug developer,” adding, “Even when the H.O.P. project faced potential setbacks, Vice Chairman Lim Ju-hyun maintained stability and provided the support necessary to see the project through to completion.”

This is why the agreement is being viewed not merely as a technology export, but as an achievement that demonstrates HanmiPharm’s next-generation R&D leadership in the post-Chairman Lim Sung-ki era.

An industry insider remarked, “During Chairman Lim Seong-ki’s tenure, HanmiPharm marked a turning point for the domestic new drug development industry by securing a series of major technology export agreements with global big pharma companies such as Sanofi and Janssen in 2015,” adding, “This technology transfer agreement is the company’s greatest achievement achieved independently since the founder’s passing. Vice Chairman Lim’s leadership is bound to come to the forefront from now on.”