April 20, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Korea Investment Partners, a Seoul-based venture capital firm, agreed to invest 20 billion won (US$17.70 million) in CTC Bio, pinning hopes on the drug maker’s male sexual disorder therapy candidate. 

CTC Bio raised the funds by issuing five-year convertible bonds with a yield of 2 percent, according to its regulatory filing on Aug. 24. 

Investments will be used to fund phase 3 clinical trials for CTC Bio’s combination treatment for premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction.

“The company is expected to begin selling the drug from 2019, if it initiates the late-stage clinical program by the year-end,” a Korea Investment Partners official said.

The global market of erectile dysfunction drugs is expected to reach US$2.95 billion in 2023 from US$1.65 billion in 2016, according to Market Research Future.

Established in 1996 as a producer of veterinary drug and animal feed supplements, CTC Bio has shifted its business focus to pharmaceutical substance development for human therapies from 2004.

The company caught the pharma industry’s attention by developing an orally soluble film formulation of Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction pill Viagra after it lost patent protection in 2012.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)