Hanmi's $730M lung cancer deal collapsed after a patient died on its drug

Hanmi Pharmaceutical was one of South Korea's largest drug companies, with annual revenue of over ₩1.3 trillion. In 2015 it signed two of the biggest technology-export deals in Korean pharma history: a $730 million license agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim for Olmutinib, a lung cancer drug, and a deal with Sanofi for diabetes drugs worth $434 million upfront and up to $3.2 billion in milestones. The deals transformed Hanmi into a global player overnight, and its stock surged.

On 30 September 2016, Korean regulators issued a safety alert about Olmutinib, detailing two cases of toxic epidermal necrolysis — a rare and often fatal skin condition in which the skin detaches from the body — and one case of Stevens–Johnson syndrome. One of the patients had died. Boehringer terminated its $730 million deal the same day, before the market could react.

The collapse cascaded. In December 2016, Sanofi scaled back its diabetes deal, and Hanmi repaid $250 million of the $434 million upfront payment. In April 2017, Korea's Board of Audit and Inspection found Hanmi had broken two medical laws by belatedly reporting the fatal side effect, with no evidence of intentional delay and no penalties announced. 45 people had traded on advance knowledge of the Boehringer termination, netting ₩3.3 billion ($2.83 million) in illegal profits; 17 were indicted and 25 fined. In April 2018, Hanmi abandoned olmutinib's development entirely.