Celltrion Holdings to go public, establish $76B healthcare fund

Industry

Celltrion Holdings to go public, establish $76B healthcare fund

Published: 11 Jan. 2024, 15:47

SHIN HA-NEE
shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr

Celltrion Chairman and founder Seo Jung-jin, center, speaks during the 42nd J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Wednesday at the main Grand Ballroom in the Westin St. Francis Hotel, with his son and Celltrion co-CEO Seo Jin-seok, left, on stage. [CELLTRION]

SAN FRANCISCO — Celltrion Holdings will go public, its founder and chairman Seo Jung-jin said, in a bid to establish a massive 100-trillion-won ($75.8-billion) healthcare fund.

The initial public offering of Celltrion's holdings company, in which the chairman holds a 98.5-percent stake, will take place as early as late this year.

“I have a 98.5 percent stake in our holdings company in Korea, and the plan is to get that company listed by the end of the year, or early next year at the latest,” said Seo.

“By listing the company, we will create a fund valued at 100 trillion won dedicated to the healthcare sector.”

The comment came during a Q. and A. session amid Celltrion’s presentation on the main stage of the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Wednesday.

Celltrion plans to raise up to 100 trillion won through the public offering as well as additional funding from overseas investors to speed up growth for the biotech and healthcare sector.

Seo Jin-seok, the newly appointed co-CEO of Celltrion and the biosimilar drug maker founder’s eldest son, made his global debut on the main stage of the annual conference.

Celltrion co-CEO Seo Jin-seok speaks during the 42nd J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Wednesday at the main Grand Ballroom in the Westin St. Francis Hotel. [CELLTRION]

Seo was promoted as one of three co-CEOs of Celltrion after the company completed the merger with its subsidiary Celltrion Healthcare at the end of last year. The CEO took to the stage at the main Grand Ballroom of the Westin St. Francis Hotel along with his father.

The younger Seo introduced Celltrion’s plan to enter the digital healthcare market under the theme “From Pioneer to Innovator.”

“All of the industry must need to change rapidly, and the biopharmaceutical area also needs to prepare that,” said Seo.

Celltrion has been working on the Celltrion Healthcare Intelligence Bank project to build its own data bank and automate modeling for biomarker discovery, drug candidate screening and precision medicine, according to Seo.

Celltrion’s infliximab biosimilar Remsima is the world’s first antibody biosimilar approved by European regulators in 2013. Celltrion since then expanded its biosimilar line-up to six, including Yuflyma.

During the presentation, Seo predicted the biopharmaceutical company to reach 11 billion won in sales with an operating margin of 30 percent by 2030, the target year the company aims to have 22 drug products available in the market.

Celltrion’s pipelines for new drugs include antibody-drug conjugates targeting solid tumors, and the results of its ongoing studies are to be released next year. Following the recent boom in the obesity drug market, it is also looking into GLP-1 receptor agonists.

During a press meeting after the presentation, Celltrion founder and Chairman Seo Jung-jin told the journalists that “Korea has become an important player in the global bio healthcare sector.”

“There’s nothing we, Koreans, cannot achieve that leading companies in the U.S. and Europe are accomplishing,” Seo stressed, who has been spearheading global sales expansion.

J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is an annual investment symposium held in San Francisco, California, which is one of the most influential get-togethers of the global life science industry. Celltrion made a comeback to the annual conference this year after a four-year hiatus.

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