Korean companies prepared to wheel and deal at BIO USA

The BIO International Convention 2022 is scheduled for June 13 to 16 in San Diego. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Around 20 Korean biopharmaceutical companies are set to attend the BIO International Convention (BIO USA), aiming to grab share in the highly competitive market and lure global investors.

It comes as many Korean companies announce their massive investments into biopharmaceuticals, considering it as one of the future growth engines.

The annual event, often called the CES of the biopharmaceuticals, is where pharmaceuticals are bought, deals are signed and mergers are discussed. This year’s event, which will be held in San Diego from June 13 to 16, is the first conference to be in three years with in-person participation.

More than 3,000 global companies are participating to pitch their latest technologies and products at the event, while investors will be there to find places to put their capital to work.

Korean biopharmaceutical companies are ready to open their booths in the Korea Pavilion, which will be run by the KoreaBIO and the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra), while big firms like Samsung Biologics, Celltrion, SK Pharmteco and Lotte are opening their own booths.

Samsung Biologics is expected to pitch the company's capacity as a global contract manufacturing and development organization (CDMO). The company currently has three CDMO plants and is constructing a fourth plant, which will boost its capacity to 620,000 liters. Once completed, it will have nearly 30 percent of the global contract manufacturing capacity for biopharmaceuticals, beating Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim and Switzerland-based Lonza.

Its major customers include AstraZeneca, Moderna, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly.

Samsung Biologics will have the largest booth at the conference for a single company, it said. The CEO John Rim is expected to present at the event.

Celltrion, a Songdo-based biosimilar company, will also have a booth and is likely to concentrate on “partnering” with other global firms and investors.

The company says it already has some appointments set up with potential clients.

Lotte is also participating in the BIO USA with its own booth, the company’s first time joining the conference.

The booth will be run by Lotte Biologics, a fully owned biopharmaceutical subsidiary of Lotte. Lotte registered a trademark for Lotte Biologics on April 27, according to Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service.

Lotte’s focus will be its capacity in the CDMO business. In May, Lotte announced that it will purchase a Bristol-Myers Squibb bio plant in Syracuse, New York for $160 million.

The plant can annually make 35,000 liters of drug substances, according to Lotte.

Lotte says that the conference will help it raise its profile in the business.

Last month, Lotte announced that it will spend 1 trillion won ($800 million) in building a new CDMO factory in Korea, and another 2.5 trillion over the next 10 years to make Lotte Biologics a top 10 CDMO company in the world.

Yposkesi, a French CDMO company, will have its own booth to promote its capacity in the field of cell and gene therapy. SK Pharmteco, SK Inc.’s wholly-owned subsidiary, owns 70 percent of Yposkesi.

Cell and gene therapy, which refers to biological treatments that alter cell and gene information to cure diseases, is one of the fast-growing areas in biopharmaceuticals.

Smaller companies, including ABL Bio and JW Pharmaceutical, plan to target global firms to sign license deals for their potential drug candidates that show effective results in the clinical trials.

JW Pharmaceutical said it aims to find partners to transfer the technology for gout treatment candidate URC102. Its second clinical trials were finished in March in Korea, and meaningful data were generated showing safety and efficacy.

JW2286 is also on its list. JW2286 is a treatment candidate targeting solid tumors such as triple-negative breast cancer, gastric cancer and colorectal cancer. The company is currently undergoing preclinical trials on the candidate, with the goal of starting official trials next year.

ABL Bio CEO Lee Sang-hoon will participate in the Navigating Asia-Pacific Innovation Deal Opportunities session, along with executives from Bristol Myers Squibb, CStone Pharmaceuticals and AffaMed Therapeutics.

“Asia-Pacific region has become the new magnet for investment as many achievements that caught the world’s attention have been made recently,” Lee said.

Korean pharmaceutical companies inked a total of 33 technology transfer deals last year, worth 13.4 trillion won, up 32 percent on year and a record high, according to data from Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association. The association noted that the size will grow further this year.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]