Polaris Group held a shareholders' meeting yesterday (12 June) and Chairman Howard Chen said that Polaris intends to attract international pharmaceutical companies or large international investment companies to become shareholders by participating in the issuance of overseas depository receipts (GDRs). Mr Chan admitted that if international pharmaceutical companies were willing to acquire with a competitive deal, he "would not rule out" the option.

Polaris held a shareholders' meeting, where it approved its 2022 annual operation report and financial statements, as well as its 2022 net loss after tax of NT$1.15 billion and accumulated losses of NT$9.42 billion. In addition, Polaris' shareholders meeting also approved a long-term capital raising of up to 120 million shares as proposed by the Board of Directors.

Mr. Chan said that the capital raising would be carried out through various options such as the issuance of GDRs, overseas or domestic convertible bonds through the issuance of additional ordinary shares in cash. He explained that Polaris hopes to find more financial and strategic investors, including international pharmaceutical companies or large international institutions.

In a post-shareholders' meeting interview, Mr Chan further replied that if an international pharmaceutical company was interested in buying Polaris, he would "not rule out" the option, saying, "If someone is willing to pay a very high price that you can't resist, you can sell".

Regarding the progress of Polaris' own business, Chen pointed out that after the Phase III unblinding of the new lung mesothelial cancer drug ADI-PEG20, the US FDA has approved Polaris' research in clinical trials for lung mesothelial cancer. This will not only broaden the scope of use but also strengthen the drug certification application.

Chen said that Polaris will accept the FDA's recommendation to explore the use of ADI-PEG20 in second-line lung mesothelial cancer patients, but will still formally submit a BLA to the FDA for the first-line treatment of mesothelial lung cancer by the end of the third quarter of this year, so that ADI-PEG20 for mesothelial lung cancer can be marketed in the US as soon as possible.

In addition, Polaris plans to spend NT$2 billion to build a CDMO facility in Yilan. After several months of environmental processing, the plant design has recently been completed and construction is expected to commence before September this year.