Key points
- Somagen, Naibec, Genexine and Samyang Biopharm all hit Korea's 30% daily trading limit Thursday on Moderna's cancer-vaccine trial win, and each has a disclosed mRNA business. Somagen has been Moderna's own genomic-testing vendor since 2014.
- Entutech also hit the limit, but it's a semiconductor-equipment maker with nothing to do with mRNA. Its "Moderna stock" label dates to a 2021 vaccine-distribution bid that never happened.
- The same day, Kolon TissueGene fell 16.41% to 21,650 won ($15.55 USD), still reeling from its own failed trial a month earlier, a reminder of how fast Korean biotech sentiment can flip.
Somagen (소마젠), Naibec (나이벡), Genexine (제넥신) and Samyang Biopharm (삼양바이오팜) all hit Korea's 30% daily trading limit on Thursday, the maximum a Korean stock can move in one session. The trigger came from New York. Moderna's (MRNA) stock had risen 176.97% a day earlier, after the company said a melanoma vaccine developed with Merck (MRK) succeeded in a late-stage trial, the first time an mRNA cancer vaccine has cleared one.
All four have a business tied to it. Somagen has supplied Moderna with genomic analysis services since a contract it signed in 2014, worth about 1 billion won ($718,000 USD) a year. Naibec develops a peptide-based platform for delivering mRNA drugs. Samyang Biopharm has its own mRNA delivery technology, called NanoReady, and a study on it made the cover of the Journal of Controlled Release. Genexine is building its own mRNA and lipid-nanoparticle delivery platform for a different class of drugs. Two smaller Kosdaq names with real RNA businesses, ST Pharm (에스티팜) and Olix (올릭스), rose too, though not to the limit.
The one that doesn't belong
Entutech (엔투텍) hit the same 30% limit, closing at 1,925 won ($1.38 USD), and it has nothing to do with mRNA. The company started out making vacuum chambers and valves for semiconductor plants, then branched into entertainment, cryptocurrency and surgical masks. It picked up its "Moderna stock" label in 2021, after joining a consortium that pitched Moderna on distributing its Covid vaccine in Korea, a deal that never happened, and appointing Moderna co-founder Robert Langer to its board. Thursday's rally was that same old label resurfacing, Korean media said, not anything new.
A reminder from a company with nothing to do with Moderna
The same day carried its own warning, from a stock that has no connection to Moderna at all. Kolon TissueGene (코오롱티슈진) fell another 16.41% Thursday, to 21,650 won ($15.55 USD), a month after its own osteoarthritis gene therapy failed a US trial. The stock has fallen from the 60,000 won range to the 20,000 won range since then, and it's still falling. Korean biotech can move as fast in one direction as the other.
The Kosdaq closed up 1.99% at 840.89 on Thursday, the same session Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix reversed the Kospi's worst day in weeks. The biotech rally added a second story to the same session, and a far less certain one.
Sources
- 한국경제, 모더나 mRNA 암백신 3상 성공에…국내 RNA·암백신주 동반 강세, on Genexine, Samyang Biopharm, ST Pharm and Olix's real mRNA and RNA-drug businesses
- 한국경제, 모더나 잭팟에 K바이오주도 훈풍…추격매수는 유의해야, on the warning against chasing the theme and Kolon TissueGene's same-day fall
- 전자신문, 소마젠, 모더나에 유전체 분석 서비스 공급 확대, on Somagen's genomic-analysis supply contract with Moderna since 2014
- 시사저널e, [주간e종목] 반도체기업 엔투텍, 어쩌다 모더나 관련주가 됐나, on how the semiconductor maker Entutech got tagged as a Moderna stock in 2021
- Our earlier coverage: the Kospi's reversal the same day
Won-to-dollar conversions use Thursday's exchange rate of 1,392.6 won per dollar. This is not investment advice.
