2025/4/15
On April 15th, 2025, Polaris Group-KY (6550) held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new plant with the expansion of 6 production lines at Zhunan. The attending guests and the ones sending their congratulations include Hsinchu Science Park Bureau, Longtai Construction, Hua Nan Bank, Taiwan Cooperative Bank, Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, Anxo Pharmaceutical, and many representatives from different industries. Chairman and CEO of Polaris Group Dr. Steve Hsu gave a ceremonial speech, mentioning that Polaris plans to invest a total of approximately NT$8 billion in phases to expand production capacity over the next five years (2025-2029), with the goal of reaching an annual output value of NT$100 billion with the dual engines after the full expansion with loaded capacity. The dual engine model includes (1) ADI-PEG20 (trade name ADZODI) for (a) malignant pleural mesothelioma (lung mesothelioma, MPM), (b) glioblastoma (brain cancer, GBM), leiomyosarcoma (LMS), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and other indications (2) GLP-1 generics for diabetes, weight loss, and other indications.
At the ceremony, Dr. Hsu also outlined other important business blueprints: The global patient numbers for Polaris’ new drug ADI-PEG20 / ADZODI is estimated to exceed 1.57 million, of which hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) accounts for the majority (43.61%), followed by GBM (26.25%) and AML (22.29%), and the estimated global output value is about US$2.3 billion. Polaris Group will expand cGMP plants in the United States, Taiwan, and mainland China for supplying ADZODI’s drugs to different regions. Using MPM & GBM indications as an example, plant expansion can support 3.6 million injections as the annual production capacity. Polaris aimed at obtaining the Biologics License Applications (BLA) approval of ADZODI new drug for MPM indication by this year and initiating the commercialization in 2026. ADZODI MPM oversea definitive agreements for collaboration have been completed in 7 markets of Saudi Arabia and GCC region, 36 markets in EMEA, with other regions still in progress, as Polaris Group is still actively looking for collaborative partners in Asia and South Asia.
In 2024, the GLP-1 market consisting of semaglutide and tirpatide that can reduce blood sugar and lose weight, has the market value of US$44.72 billion. Topsperity Securities predicts that the global market size of GLP-1 in type 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity will reach US$90 billion in 2030. Among them, T2D drug market accounts for about US$35 to 40 billion, and the weight loss drug market accounts for about US$50 to 55 billion. Barclays estimates that the global weight loss therapeutics market could be worth more than US$100 billion in the next 10 years. Polaris’ GLP-1 Key competitive advantages include complex process technology for full synthesis/semi-synthesis, regulatory expertise in drug-device combination, development and production capabilities for injection/oral formulation, and other endeavors in vertical integration of the complete industry chain.
The capital increase will be NT$2 billion in the middle of this year, since the attitude of the major shareholders is quite positive, and it’s expected to be completed successfully. In the near future, Polaris Group will continue to actively identify and train sufficient technical and management personnel to build the dual-engine accelerated growth model. In addition, Polaris will also invest in the research and development of innovative drugs and generic drugs, including the next-generation ADI-PEG20 and diabetic ulcer healing drugs, from starting materials, APIs to drug products, hoping to safeguard and strengthen the rights of all stakeholders and create a win-win situation. The presentation of the overall strategy was well received by the participating guests, and the ceremony was successfully completed.