[Person人] From Group Chairman to Startup Entrepreneur Again

Seo Jung-jin, Chairman of Celltrion Group

Challenges Remote Medical Startup After Retirement
Starts in Northern Europe and the US, Not Korea

Celltrion Aims for Global Top 10 by 2025
Domestic First COVID-19 Treatment Development Nears Completion

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] Seo Jung-jin, chairman of Celltrion, who has effectively stepped down from the front lines of management this year, has found himself grappling with the same concerns as before founding Celltrion. In 1998, during the foreign exchange crisis, Seo, who went from being the youngest executive at a large corporation to unemployed overnight, pondered with his former colleagues on how to proceed with business. Now, more than 20 years later, he founded a company with a seed fund of 50 million won collected by his wife and grew it into a bio group with a market capitalization exceeding 80 trillion won. Having done that, he now stands once again at the starting line of a new beginning.

Challenge in Remote Medical Care Startup

After leaving Celltrion, Chairman Seo is returning as a startup entrepreneur. This time, the business item is blood testing. The idea is to enable elderly people who find it difficult to visit hospitals to collect a small amount of blood at home and receive remote medical care. He explained the background of his new business plan by saying, "Even without the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for medical services is increasing due to aging, and healthcare innovation is inevitable." He added, "If we can solve the blood testing issue, a service that 7 billion people worldwide can use will be created in South Korea," and claimed, "Only Amazon and I are willing to do this."

The specific direction of this new challenge has not yet been decided. However, since it is focused on remote medical care, it is highly likely to start in Nordic countries such as Finland, rather than South Korea, where related regulations exist. Seo plans to step down as chairman at the upcoming March shareholders' meeting and rent a 30-pyeong office in Bundang, Gyeonggi Province, to concentrate on new business planning. After the shareholders' meeting, he will only hold an honorary chairman position at Celltrion without compensation.

Seo has been envisioning this plan for several years. In January 2019, he suddenly announced his retirement, stating, "I will step down as chairman by the end of next year." In January last year, he expressed his intention to enter the healthcare business utilizing remote medical technology. Regarding his new challenge, Seo said, "Many people ask why a large corporation head starts a startup after retirement. Some say 'he's not in his right mind,' but this is an opportunity that has come to our country," raising his voice.

Approaching Celltrion's Dream

When Seo founded Celltrion, his goal was to develop it into a comprehensive pharmaceutical company. Since then, Celltrion, which grew based on its own technology in the biosimilar (biopharmaceutical generic) field, has been realizing Seo's dream step by step as it advances into a global company. In June last year, Celltrion acquired the Asia-Pacific business rights of the multinational pharmaceutical company Takeda Pharmaceutical of Japan for 330 billion won. This created an opportunity to domestically produce treatments for chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, which had previously relied on imports. In addition to the existing biopharmaceutical product lines for autoimmune diseases and cancer, the company expanded its territory to include chemical pharmaceuticals. Celltrion aims for sales of 1 trillion won from the chemical pharmaceutical business alone in 2024.

Celltrion first surpassed annual sales of 1 trillion won in 2019 and is estimated to have recorded sales of about 1.86 trillion won last year. Industry insiders expect Celltrion to surpass the domestic 'Big 5' pharmaceutical companies and become the first bio company to rank first in sales. The expansion of the biopharmaceutical market, increased contract manufacturing organization (CMO) sales, and improved production efficiency have driven performance growth.

Celltrion aims to stand on par with global pharmaceutical companies in the future. Its core biosimilar products such as Remsima continue to grow steadily overseas, and sales related to COVID-19, including diagnostic kits, have also shown strong performance. Additionally, depending on the success of developing COVID-19 antibody treatments, further revenue generation is expected. In 2019, Celltrion ranked within the top 30 global pharmaceutical and bio companies based on operating profit. Seo recently stated in an interview, "I hope the juniors achieve growth to rank 20th globally by 2021 and within the top 10 by 2025."

First Domestic COVID-19 Treatment Drug in Sight

After the COVID-19 outbreak began, Seo boldly promised to introduce a treatment drug within the year. On the 29th of last month, two days before his retirement, he applied for conditional approval of the antibody treatment drug 'Rekkironaju' to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. With this, Celltrion became the third pharmaceutical company worldwide to apply for approval to use a COVID-19 antibody treatment drug. If conditional approval is granted, Rekkironaju could be launched as early as this month.

Rekkironaju's core is to prevent organ damage, a major factor leading to severe illness, through early diagnosis and early treatment. Celltrion has already produced enough supply since last September to treat 100,000 domestic patients, so it can be used immediately in medical settings once conditional approval is granted. Following domestic approval, preparations are underway for overseas expansion to the United States, Europe, and other regions.

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