Korean biopharmaceutical companies have been receiving termination notifications from their partnering companies for their licensed-out new drug candidates one after another.

Olix Pharmaceuticals and Curacle recently received notifications of contract terminations from France’s Thea Open Innovation. Voronoi’s license-out agreement for its new anticancer candidate was terminated in April.

In the past two months, three accounts of license-out of new drug candidates were returned. The industry views this as a result of changes in the development strategies of contracting companies. Companies that had their rights returned rights are planning to change their strategies to in-house