Chey Taewon's 30 Years of Steadfast Investment in Bio to Lead SK Group's Next 30 Years in the Post-COVID Era

Expectations for Trillion-Won Sales in the Bio Sector
COVID-19 Treatments and Vaccine Development in the Spotlight
Aiming to Surpass 1 Trillion Won in Annual Revenue for the First Time
Full Pipeline: From Clinical Trials to Approval and Sales
SK Biopharm Stands Out with Notable Achievements
First Korean Company with Two FDA-Approved New Drugs
Corporate Value Could Reach 5 Trillion Won Upon Listing

[Asia Economy, Reporter Park Soyeon and Reporter Cho Hyuneui] SK Group is aiming for trillion-won sales in its bio sector for the first time this year. Recently, major bio affiliates have been making notable progress in the development of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, fueling expectations that SK Group's bio sector sales will grow by double digits or more compared to last year. The results of steadfast investments in the bio business for over 30 years, from the late Chairman Chey Jonghyun to Chairman Chey Taewon, are now being recognized as having established the sector as a core business that will lead the group for the next 30 years in the post-COVID-19 era.

◇ Expectations for Trillion-Won Sales in the Bio Sector = According to the industry on May 27, the total sales of SK Group's major bio companies-SK Pharmteco, SK Bioscience, and SK Plasma-reached 175.9253 billion won in the first quarter of this year, up 45.5% from the same period last year. Despite the deteriorating business environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the merger of AMPAC, a subsidiary of SK Pharmteco, last year led to a significant increase in sales this year.

Although SK Biopharm's quarterly sales were not counted due to the lack of quarterly earnings disclosure, the company recorded 123.8 billion won in annual sales last year. During the same period, the four bio companies of SK Group, including SK Biopharm, achieved a total of 806.4 billion won in sales. This includes 409.4 billion won from SK Pharmteco, 183.2 billion won from SK Bioscience, and 90 billion won from SK Plasma. Both inside and outside SK Group, it is expected that this year's bio sector sales will grow by double digits or more compared to the previous year, reaching the trillion-won range. Although the bio sector's share of the group's total sales remains small, it is showing the fastest growth. SK Group believes that this year will mark the beginning of the bio sector's solid establishment as one of the group's three main businesses.

◇ SK Group in the Spotlight as a 'COVID-19 Problem Solver' = Ironically, the COVID-19 pandemic, which threatens the global economy, is accelerating SK Group's roadmap. SK Group recently secured a contract in the United States to supply raw materials for essential COVID-19 pharmaceuticals worth 1 trillion won. It is also the only company among Korea's top 10 conglomerates to engage in COVID-19 vaccine development. The group has attracted attention from the bio industry, including receiving funding for vaccine research and development from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. SK Pharmteco, a subsidiary of SK Inc., the group's holding company, will supply active pharmaceutical ingredients for the U.S. government's essential medicine stockpiling project to respond to COVID-19. The total project is valued at up to 1 trillion won, surpassing SK Pharmteco's total sales of 409.4 billion won last year. SK Bioscience, a vaccine specialist company that is a subsidiary of SK Chemicals and a grandchild company of SK Discovery, is also actively developing a COVID-19 vaccine. The company recently succeeded in identifying a vaccine candidate and is currently conducting preclinical trials.

SK Chemicals is also attracting global attention for its development of COVID-19 treatments. SK Chemicals is supplying the preventive asthma treatment 'Alvesco' to 11 domestic medical institutions conducting clinical trials for COVID-19 treatments as part of a public-private joint project. SK Chemicals has held the domestic sales rights for Alvesco since 2014. In addition, SK Chemicals plans to actively cooperate if domestic clinical trials are decided for 'Avigan,' which is currently undergoing clinical trials as a COVID-19 treatment in Japan, as it is the Korean partner of Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, the developer of Avigan.

◇ SK Group's 'Big Picture'... No Barriers for Future Businesses = SK Group's bio business is largely divided into two branches. SK Biopharm and SK Pharmteco are affiliates of SK Inc., led by Chairman Chey Taewon, while SK Bioscience and SK Plasma are affiliates of SK Discovery, led by Vice Chairman Chey Changwon. SK Group operates under a structure in which two holding companies, SK Inc. and SK Discovery, essentially manage their businesses independently. The SK Group owner family's close relationship is well known, and recently, Chairman Chey Taewon encouraged researchers at SK Bioscience, under SK Discovery, who are working on COVID-19 vaccine development via video call, demonstrating that the group is operating its bio businesses without internal barriers. While SK Bioscience and SK Plasma specialize in vaccine and blood product development, SK Biopharm and SK Pharmteco, under SK Inc., are specialized in new drug development and mass production, respectively.

The business community assesses that SK Group's bio business has reached a significant level of competitiveness, considering its portfolio composition and the technological capabilities of individual companies. In particular, SK Biopharm is credited with rewriting the history of Korea's pharmaceutical and bio industry by directly handling all stages of new drug development, from candidate selection to clinical trials, approval, and sales. The company became the first in Korea to own two new drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The financial investment industry predicts that if SK Biopharm successfully lists on KOSPI in the second half of this year, its corporate value could reach up to 5 trillion won. There is also growing interest in the role of Chairman Chey Taewon's eldest daughter, Chey Yoonjung, a bio business expert. Before leaving to pursue a master's degree in bioinformatics at Stanford University in the United States last year, she worked at SK Biopharm for two and a half years starting in 2017. An SK Group official said, "The achievements in the bio sector, including new drugs, can be attributed to the ownership structure that enabled proactive investments for the distant future, rather than short-term results, in what was essentially uncharted territory in Korea. Alongside batteries, semiconductors, and 5G, the bio sector is expected to yield tangible results in the 'post-COVID' era."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.