KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 6): TauRx Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a company in which Genting Bhd has a 20.33% stake, plans to seek approval for its hydromethylthionine mesylate (HMTM) oral drug  for people with Alzheimer's by next year.

“TauRx plans to submit HMTM for regulatory approval in the US and Canada in 2023, with other territories to follow, in line with its overall plans to commercialise HMTM and pursue clinical trials in other related neurodegenerative diseases,”said TauRx on its website.

This comes after TauRx, a leader in tau-based research in Alzheimer, unveiled results from its Phase 3 Alzheimer’s study, named Lucidity. It will present the Phase 3 findings at the Clinical Trials in Alzheimer’s Disease conference on Nov 30 in San Francisco.

RHB Research, in a note dated June 13, had said that favorable trial results may pave the way for potential mergers and acquisitions interest on TauRx, giving Genting an early opportunity to monetise.

TauRx could contribute RM1.3 billion to RM4.3 billion to Genting’s earnings in the financial year ending Dec 31, 2024 (FY24) to FY26, assuming a 10% net margin, the research house said.

“It could also fetch an upside of RM3.47-13.88/share based on 10x P/E (c.35% discount to peers’ average) on our base and bull cases for FY24F earnings, which translates to hypothetical TPs (target prices) of MYR9.84-20.25 for Genting,” said RHB.

Genting narrowed its net loss for the first half of FY22 to RM259.2 million from RM895.3 million a year earlier, as revenue jumped to RM9.9 billion from RM5.2 billion.

Shares of Genting were down 0.22% to close at RM4.51 on Thursday, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM17.48 billion.