Alteogen third-quarter operating profit nearly triples on Hybrozyme royalties

Alteogen said Tuesday its third-quarter operating profit rose 195.8 percent from a year earlier to 78.9 billion won ($58.8 million), as royalties from partner products built on its Hybrozyme platform and new technology exports lifted results.

Revenue for the quarter reached 120 billion won ($89.3 million), up 144.4 percent from 49 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing. Net income was 42.1 billion won ($31.4 million), compared with 22 billion won in the same quarter of 2025. The operating margin widened to 66 percent from 54 percent a year earlier.

Alteogen attributed the results to commercial sales of Keytruda Qlex, the subcutaneous formulation of MSD's cancer drug that uses its platform, and to the expansion of its partnership agreements. Sales milestones tied to that product flowed in as cumulative revenue from the formulation reached $1.42 billion (1.9 trillion won) through the third quarter, the company said.

Keytruda Qlex sales alone came to $830 million (1.1 trillion won) in the third quarter, up from $463 million in the previous quarter. The subcutaneous version accounted for 15.8 percent of US sales of the drug in September. Alteogen received its first sales milestone of $25 million under the MSD agreement, the first payment from a total of $1 billion in sales milestones in that contract.

"These results were supported by both the commercial performance of partner products on the Hybrozyme platform and new technology exports," Chief Executive Officer Jeon Tae-yeon said.

The company signed two additional Hybrozyme license agreements during the quarter: a deal in August with an undisclosed global partner worth up to $365 million (490 billion won), and a September agreement with Novartis worth up to $3.23 billion (4.33 trillion won). That brought the total to four Hybrozyme licenses so far this year, with a combined value of up to $4.45 billion in milestones, excluding royalties.

Alteogen also said it completed an international patent application in September for a long-acting conjugate platform, and that animal-test data for its monthly-dose obesity treatment candidate ALT-M5 will be presented at ObesityWeek 2026 in the United States in November.