SK Biopharm expects turnaround year with potential 'blockbuster' drug

SK Biopharmaceuticals (SK Biopharm) CEO Lee Dong-hoon speaks during the 42nd J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday. [SK BIOPHARM]

SAN FRANCISCO — SK Biopharmaceuticals’ Xcopri, an epilepsy treatment, will drive earnings turnaround this year for the pharmaceutical company, its CEO said Tuesday during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

The plan is to route the fresh inflow of cash into expanding pipelines, including into targeted protein degradation (TPD) and cell and gene therapies (CGT).

“This is going to be the first year that we’re going to have positive cash flow,” said SK Biopharmaceuticals CEO Lee Dong-hoon during his presentation on Tuesday at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in San Francisco, California, a venue dedicated to biopharmaceutical companies based in the Asia-Pacific region.

Lee expects Xcopri, the anti-seizure drug also known as Cenobamate, to achieve blockbuster status and generate $1 billion by 2029 in the U.S. market alone. With the addition of global sales outside the United States, the CEO expects that figure to reach $2 billion.

“On the conservative side, for the next seven years, we will be generating probably at least $2 billion from the sale of Xcopri,” said Lee.

“And with the cash flow, […] we chose three sectors which we have to go for; target protein degradation [TPD], radiopharmaceuticals [RPT] and cell and gene therapy [CGT].”

SK Biopharm is currently selling Xcopri in the United States through its own sales network, rather than an American distributor, which Lee cited as one of the main drivers of the drug's strong sales performance in the country, which is the biggest pharmaceutical market in the world.

The company acquired the U.S. biotech firm ProteoVant, now called SK Life Science Labs, last year, in order to secure TPD capabilities.

Regarding RPT, SK Biopharm plans to leverage SK’s ties with TerraPower, a U.S. nuclear company, to procure radioactive isotopes. SK Inc. and SK Innovation invested $250 million into TerraPower in 2021.

Regarding CGT, which is widely considered one of the most advanced modalities in medicine, SK Biopharm hopes to work with SK pharmteco, the contract development and manufacturing organization subsidiary of SK Inc. focused on CGT capacity.

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won’s eldest daughter, who was promoted to head business development at SK Biopharm in December, attended this year’s JP Morgan conference.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]