Small bio firms rush to go public

• Published date: 06 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

Korea's small- to mid-sized biotechnology firms are moving to go public on the local stock market despite weak investor sentiment on initial public offerings (IPO) here.

Starting with Bioinfra, a local biotech company, which was listed on the secondary Kosdaq on March 2, a group of bio companies here is scheduled to go public, hoping to attract timely investments even as market sentiment has yet to recover.

This contrasts with other highly-anticipated big companies ? most of which are delaying their IPO timelines on fears of attracting less-than-expected capital from investors amid months-long stock doldrums.

S.BIOMEDICS ? a cell therapy products developer ? also plans to carry out a two-day demand forecasting from institutional investors from March 8. The firm's post-IPO market capitalization is forecast to reach as high as 198 billion won ($152 million).

GI Innovation ? whose expertise lies in developing protein new drugs ? is also scheduled to conduct the demand...