[JPMHC 2024] This Year's Global Pharma-Bio Trends: 'Obesity Drugs, ADC'

This year, the global pharmaceutical and bio industry is expected to be led by the issues of ‘obesity drugs’ and ‘antibody-drug conjugates (ADC)’. At the recent global pharmaceutical and bio largest investment event, the ‘JP Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPMHC)’ held in San Francisco, USA, multinational pharmaceutical companies emphasized their pipelines in these two fields. The domestic pharmaceutical industry also appears to be moving to join this trend.

On the second day of JPMHC, the 9th (local time), representatives from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, who are competing for the number one spot in global pharmaceutical and bio market capitalization, took the stage one after another. These are the pharmaceutical companies that opened the market in earnest last year by launching glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 class obesity drugs ‘Zepbound’ and ‘Wegovy’.

On the 8th, the opening day of the 42nd JP Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPMHC) held in San Francisco, USA, participants are seen moving briskly to attend presentations.
[Photo by JP Morgan]

Lilly introduced the triple agonist ‘Retatrutide’, which acts not only on GLP-1 but also on glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) and glucagon (GCG). David Ricks, CEO, said, "We confirmed a weight loss effect of up to 25%" and added, "We are preparing six additional obesity drug candidates, including oral medications." Novo Nordisk focused on ‘securing supply’. Due to the popularity of Wegovy, supply has not kept up, causing shortages. Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, CEO of Novo Nordisk, said, "We will significantly increase the supply of Wegovy in the US this year," expressing expectations that "the obesity drug market is naturally growing." Pfizer, Amgen, Regeneron, Merck, AstraZeneca (AZ), and others also emphasized that they are developing obesity drugs.

Domestic pharmaceutical companies are also riding this trend. Lee Jae-jun, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Ildong Pharmaceutical, who attended JPMHC with the oral GLP-1 drug ‘ID110521156’, said, "I felt the interest of big pharma’s business development (BD) personnel who said, ‘GLP-1 and ADC will lead technology transactions as a dual engine again this year’," adding, "Since the market and transaction scale are expected to grow further, we will consider the appropriate timing for technology export in the future." Celltrion also presented a GLP-1 combination as a major new drug pipeline candidate and revealed development plans, while John Rim, CEO of Samsung Biologics, expressed interest during Q&A by saying, "Currently, we do not have GLP-1 production facilities, but if requested in the future, we may prepare production facilities."

On the platform side, ADC stood out. It is a technology that links antibodies that attach to cancer cells with cytotoxic drugs that kill cancer cells into one drug. It is called a ‘cruise missile’ that precisely targets cancer. The breast cancer treatment ‘Enhertu’, jointly developed by AZ and Daiichi Sankyo, has significantly extended patients’ progression-free survival (PFS), intensifying technological competition. Hyemin Heo, a researcher at Kiwoom Securities, said, "Big pharma, seizing the opportunity for market expansion, is naming ADC as the mainstream of the cancer market after immuno-oncology," adding, "The fact that ADCs are classified as biopharmaceuticals under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) drug price reduction also seems to influence the ability to maintain profitability for a long time."

On the 8th (local time), at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPMHC) held in San Francisco, USA, participants who could not enter the venue are listening to NVIDIA's corporate presentation outside.
[Photo by JP Morgan]

Interest continues from the first day of JPMHC, with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) acquiring ADC developer Membrax Biopharma for $2 billion (about 2.645 trillion KRW). Joaquin Duato, CEO of J&J, said, "ADC will play an important role as a new drug modality in solid tumors," and directly mentioned the acquisition of Membrax as well as the technology collaboration with Korea’s LegoChemBio last year. US companies Merck (MSD), AbbVie, and Novartis also identified ADC as one of their core pipelines.

Domestically, John Rim, CEO of Samsung Biologics, said, "We are promoting the construction of an ADC-dedicated production facility aiming for completion this year," adding, "We are continuing discussions with Araris and AimedBio on the technical side and plan to pursue bispecific antibody ADC production as well." Seo Jin-seok, CEO of Celltrion, also revealed plans for ADC new drug clinical trials by 2025, hastening preparations to join the trend.

Another hot topic at this JPMHC was artificial intelligence (AI) drug development. There is an expectation that by utilizing AI’s fast computational speed to quickly discover new drug candidates, time and costs can be reduced. On the first day of the event, the 8th, IT company Nvidia introduced its drug AI development platform ‘Bionimo’ and the supercomputer ‘Freya’, built in partnership with big pharma Amgen for new drug research. The presentation hall was so crowded even before the start that some attendees had to stand on tiptoe to listen attentively, showing high popularity. On the day before JPMHC, the 7th, Google’s AI drug developer Isomorphic signed contracts totaling $2.9 billion (about 3.835 trillion KRW) with Lilly and Novartis, continuing such moves.

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