Article at a GlanceWithin 8 years of its founding, the factors behind Neurophet’s success in dominating most of the domestic dementia imaging analysis market and emerging as an essential partner to global Big Pharma can be summarized in three points.
1) Vertical integration: While competitors expanded their pipelines across multiple diseases, Neurophet chose a contrarian approach by deeply focusing on a single domain, the brain. In particular, it proactively completed technologies that quantify the key biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease, including amyloid, tau, brain atrophy and vascular factors.
2) Completeness of diagnosis and treatment: By opening the door to the global market with scalable diagnostic solutions and driving revenue through high-margin brain electrical stimulation therapy devices, Neurophet ensured that diagnosis naturally leads to treatment, creating a strong lock-in effect that keeps medical institutions within its ecosystem.
3) Market-tailored expansion strategy: In its global expansion, Neurophet abandoned a uniform approach and adopted a dual-track strategy tailored to the characteristics of each market. At the same time, it secured collaboration references with global Big Pharma.
In March 2024, the atmosphere at the headquarters of Neurophet in Gangnam, Seoul, was markedly subdued. The company had ambitiously pursued a KOSDAQ listing through the technology special listing system, but unexpected setbacks began to emerge from multiple directions. Been Jun-kil, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Neurophet, found himself unable to bring his pen to the signature line as he repeatedly handled the technology evaluation application placed before him. The issue was not with the technology itself. Neurophet had already demonstrated its technological capability by developing the neurodegenerative brain imaging analysis software “Neurophet AQUA” in 2020 and receiving Class II medical device certification from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, followed by certification in June 2021 for the brain magnetic stimulation image treatment planning software “Neurophet TMS LAB,” and in July for the transcranial electrical stimulation (tES)
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device “Neurophet innk,” thereby gaining recognition for its technology. The problem arose outside the company. The rules of the market had changed, and unexpected adverse factors had emerged.
The first crisis stemmed from the so-called “FADU incident.” After the fabless semiconductor (SSD controller) company “FADU” entered the KOSDAQ market through a technology special listing in August 2023, allegations of inflated sales emerged when its post-listing performance significantly diverged from expectations. Starting in 2024, the Korea Exchange and investors have begun demanding “proven revenue” from tech-specialty listed companies, rather than just promising them a bright future. As if this were not enough, a massive black swan event beyond the company’s control struck at a critical moment. The medical dispute that began in February 2024 effectively halted operations at university hospitals, leading to the sudden cancellation of planned purchase agreements. Been explained the situation at the time, stating, “Purchases from three university hospitals were virtually confirmed in February, but all discussions disappeared overnight,” adding that “it became a situation of complete uncertainty in which revenue projections themselves became impossible.”
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