Eoflow and Xihip’s Big Move: What’s Behind the Stability of Sanplena Shares

【Health and Welfare News】Sanplena (CEO: Luis Malave), a developer of rapid obesity treatment drugs, and EOflow (CEO Jaejin Kim), a wearable insulin pump specialist, recently announced that there is no change in the current shareholding structure of Sanplena.

Sanplena is a bio venture company whose major shareholders are Eoflow and Zyhip, a drug development company specializing in hormones for metabolic diseases. Following the recent news that Sanplena was sold to Metsera, rumors circulated that Eoflow also sold its shares in Sanplena.

Zyhip is a British company specializing in the development of endocrine synthetic hormones, founded by Professor Sir Stephen Bloom of Imperial College, England, a world-renowned authority on endocrine hormones, and was sold to Metsera.

EOflow explains that Sanplena’s partner company, Xihip, is an American subsidiary of the same name in which the UK headquarters owns 100%, so there will be no change in Sanplena’s shareholding structure as a result of the sale.

Eoflow confirmed, “There has been no change in Sanplena’s shareholding structure so far, and other than changes in the shareholding structure due to future planned funding, there are no changes expected in the shareholding structure in the future.”

Sanplena, established as a joint venture by Eoflow and Xihip, is currently developing an ultra-fast obesity treatment solution that can treat obesity in about 3 months without side effects by combining a wearable drug injector with a powerful obesity treatment with a short half-life.

Existing obesity treatments require more than a year to treat obesity because the dosage must be slowly increased over a long period of time due to side effects such as vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. It is also known that about half of users give up because of this. In addition, there has recently been growing concern about the side effects of long-term treatment, such as sarcopenia, decreased vision, and suicidal impulses.

Sanplena CEO Luis said, ‘We believe we are the only company in the world developing a solution that combines a powerful drug with an injector. Despite the limitations caused by the use of a separate injector, there is a huge need in the market for a solution that can significantly reduce weight in a short period of time, and as the issue of side effects from long-term treatment increases, the size of our market will grow, he predicted.

Currently, Sanplena is developing a prefilled device for future clinical trials.

In April 2021, EoFlow succeeded in commercializing EoPatch, the world’s second patch-type insulin pump product, and possesses EoPump technology, an ultra-low power drive unit that is the core technology of the product.

Kim Jae-jin, CEO of EOflow, said, “Recently, there are rumors in the market that EOflow sold its stake in Sanplena to Messera, but this is not true.” He added, “The size of the global obesity treatment market is beyond imagination, and it will grow even more in the future.” “It is expected to grow and ultimately Sanplena will be able to develop into a bigger company than Eoflow, so there will be no sale of Sanplena from Eoflow,” he added.

He continued, “Regarding our company’s ongoing bequest, we have announced the sale of our stocks in order to follow the policies of the relevant authorities, but we have no doubts about the future development of Eoflow, including Sanplena, and we will do our best to sell our stocks without selling them if possible.” “We are looking for every possible way to participate in the bequest,” he added.

Meanwhile, Eoflow has no basis for competitors’ infringement claims related to the ongoing lawsuit, and is looking positively at the possibility of a refutation.