[Edaily Reporter SONG YOUNG-DOO ] HanmiPharm(128940)Hanmi Group has rewritten the history of domestic pharmaceutical and biotech technology exports with a single obesity drug candidate. The deal, worth up to $2.3 billion—including an upfront payment of $190 million—secured for a single candidate, is the largest of its kind ever.

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 founder and late 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 approximately 3.2 trillion won with the global pharmaceutical giant Genentech.

HanmiPharm, which wrote a global technology export success story in 2015, has once again secured a major contract for a next-generation obesity drug 11 years later, proving its status as a leading name in new drug development.

3.2 Trillion Won Technology Transfer for a Single Compound—Largest in K-Bio History; Upfront Payment of 285 Billion Won

On the 24th, HanmiPharm signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Genentech, a subsidiary of the Roche Group, for “HM17321” (an UCN2 analog), a drug candidate for the treatment of metabolic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. The deal is valued at up to $2.3 billion (approximately 3.2 trillion won). Genentech secures exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize the drug worldwide, excluding Korea. HanmiPharm will receive a non-refundable upfront payment of $190 million and will earn additional milestone payments and separate royalties based on future development, approval, and commercialization.

The total contract value also ranks among the highest in the history of Korean technology exports. It is a large-scale deal that joins other contracts exceeding $2.3 billion, such as the 2015 deal between HanmiPharm and Sanofi worth 3.9 billion euros and the deal between ABL Bio Inc. and Eli Lilly worth $2.602 billion. While these major deals typically involve multi-program agreements utilizing multiple candidate compounds or platforms, HanmiPharm’s HM17321 was recognized as having a value of $2.3 billion—the largest in K-Bio history—as a technology transfer for a single candidate compound.

Just as notable 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, regulatory approval, and commercialization—are met. In contrast, the upfront payment, which carries no repayment obligation, is cash secured simply by signing the contract. It serves as one indicator of how highly the global pharmaceutical company acquiring the technology values the candidate 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 is the largest upfront payment ever.”

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 currently 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 the early clinical stages, this is interpreted as a sign that the company holds HM17321 in very high regard for its 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 deal 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) when it licensed 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 upon licensing a candidate drug incorporating 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 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), receiving 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—while the upfront payment of $190 million is about 1.8 times larger. This is the largest deal in terms of both total contract value and upfront payment among agreements 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 Fruit of Lim Ju-hyun’s Leadership

Another significance of this technology export lies in the development process of HM17321. HM17321 is not a standalone project but one of the core pipelines of the H.O.P. project, which HanmiPharm 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—along with body weight. The goal is to develop a “first-in-class” 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 R&D to the end without losing sight of HanmiPharm’s 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 needed 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 demonstrating HanmiPharm’s next-generation R&D leadership in the post-Chairman Lim Seong-ki era.

An industry insider noted, “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 take center stage moving forward.”