CGBio (CEO Hyun Seung Yu), specializing in bio regenerative medicine, announced on the 23 day that it signed a license out agreement with HTDK Shanghai (hereinafter the “HTDK”), a Chinese medical device distributor, for its calcium filler FACETEM.
The signing ceremony of the agreement was recently held at CGBio’s headquarters, attended by CGBio CEO Hyun Seung Yu, COO Ju Mi Chung and, four company officials, HTDK CEO Teresa Chen, and two of her associates.
According to the terms of the agreement, HTDK will pay royalties and cover expenses associated with obtaining local clinical permits. In exchange, they will have an exclusive license for the product for the next ten years following the acquisition of necessary permits. CGBio will supply HTDK with finished products. CGBio plans to provide the product to HTDK for a duration of ten years after obtaining a permit for FACETEM in China, which is expected to achieve sales of approximately 100 million USD for the first five years.
The Chinese filler market is currently dominated by hyaluronic acid (HA) fillers, intensifying competition among companies in the industry. Thus, the need for a new type of filler emerged, leading to the development of a high-molecule-based recycling filler in 2021. However, no calcium filler based on calcium hydroxyapatite (CaHA), such as FACETEM, has been approved yet. If FACETEM obtains a permit in China, it will be the first calcium filler to do so in the Chinese filler market.
Calcium fillers can add definitive volume to areas with low volume, like recycling fillers, and when diluted, can promote the generation of skin constituents such as collagen and elastin, leading to enhanced skin firmness and tone. Therefore, calcium fillers are expected to rapidly gain market shares in the local recycling filler market.
HTDK is a large medical device distribution solution provider in China with an annual revenue of approximately KRW 400 billion. It was incorporated as a separate corporation in 2018 by Warburg Pincus, one of the five largest private equity (PE) funds in the US, after Warbug Pincus acquired the Chinese healthcare business department of DKSH, a Swiss general distributor. HTDK offers business solutions in the Chinese market for global medical device companies that create high added-value, and has achieved rapid growth over the years based on this approach.
The agreement to pay royalties and cover permit-related expenses for a product that has not yet been approved and has no established market signifies the high value of CGBio’s FACETEM and CGBio itself, one of the world’s top three manufacturers of CaHA, the sole producer in South Korea.
This recent agreement is significant because license-out agreements with royalties are relatively rare in the medical device industry. It is CGBio’s third license out agreement, following previous agreements with companies in Japan and the US for NOVOSIS Putty in 2019 and 2022. Furthermore, it represents CGBio’s first successful step into the Chinese market, which is the largest cosmetic surgery market in the world.
CGBio CEO Hyun Seung You said, “FACETEM, one of the world’s top three calcium fillers with a presence in eighteen countries and leading the global calcium market, has sufficient competitiveness in China”, adding, “We will work closely with HTDK to acquire the permit for FACETEM in China and become a leading force in the global medical aesthetics industry”.
▲ HTDK CEO Teresa Chen (left) and CGBio CEO Hyun Seung Yu are taking a commemorative photo after signing the license out agreement for FACETEM.
▲ CGBio and HTDK officials are posing for a group commemorative photo after signing the license out agreement for FACETEM.
