'Integrated Quick Step' Hanmi-OCI Owners Jointly Participate in Ceremony Honoring Former Hanmi Chairman

The Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group and OCI Group owner families, accelerating their integration, reaffirmed their commitment to the merger by jointly attending the award ceremony established to honor the late Im Sung-gi, the former chairman of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group.

At the 3rd Im Sung-gi Researcher Award ceremony held in the afternoon at Museum Hanmi in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, Song Young-sook, Chairwoman of Hanmi Science who currently leads Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group, Lim Joo-hyun, President of Hanmi Science, and Lee Woo-hyun, Chairman of OCI Group, attended the event. Chairwoman Song arrived at the venue around 2:30 p.m., well ahead of the event start time of 4 p.m., and President Lim entered the venue around 3:30 p.m., before the ceremony began. Chairman Lee appeared at the venue around 3:50 p.m., just before the event started.

The Im Sung-gi Researcher Award is regarded as the most prestigious award in the fields of biotechnology and medical science in Korea. Established by the Im Sung-gi Foundation, founded by the family of the late Im Sung-gi, the founder of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group, the award honors the late chairman and continues his legacy of new drug development. The owners of the two groups, who are preparing for integration, appeared together at the ceremony commemorating the former chairman.

Since the announcement of the integration between the two groups in January, the three have reportedly maintained close contact and held weekly face-to-face meetings. This event marked the first time all three appeared together since the integration announcement. However, the sons of the late Im Sung-gi, Im Jong-yoon, President of Hanmi Pharmaceutical, and Im Jong-hoon, CEO of Hanmi Precision Chemical, who oppose the integration, were not present.

The two groups are also strengthening their alliance by jointly responding to legal disputes raised by the brothers. The brothers have filed a provisional injunction to prohibit the issuance of new shares by Hanmi Science to OCI Holdings, a key link in the integration process. The brothers have appointed the law firms Jipyung and Gwangjang, while Hanmi Science has retained the law firm Hwawoo. The first hearing was held on the 21st of last month at the Suwon District Court.

OCI Holdings also appeared at the hearing as a supporting participant, having appointed the law firm Kim & Chang. OCI emphasized the legality of the integration process and highlighted that cooperation between the two groups could further accelerate Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s new drug development, actively cooperating with Hanmi Science.

On the 4th, Lee Woo-hyun, Chairman of OCI Group, attended the 3rd Im Seong-gi Researcher Award ceremony held at Museum Hanmi in Jongno-gu, Seoul.

The grand prize winners of the 3rd Im Sung-gi Researcher Award this year were Kim Bit-nae-ri, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Seoul National University, and the Young Researcher Award recipients for researchers under 45 were Professor Bae Sang-soo of Seoul National University College of Medicine and Professor Lee Joo-myung of Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine.

Professor Kim Bit-nae-ri currently serves as the director of the RNA Research Center at the Institute for Basic Science, conducting research to elucidate the mechanisms of microRNA that regulate gene expression. She is recognized as a world-renowned scholar who has made significant achievements in understanding related theories and the gene and cell regulatory functions derived from them.

Professor Bae Sang-soo, a recipient of the Young Researcher Award, is a professor at Seoul National University College of Medicine conducting various studies in gene editing technology and therapeutic fields. He was recognized for proposing a fundamental treatment method for congenital intractable diseases by precisely editing genes without causing DNA breaks.

Another awardee, Professor Lee Joo-myung, serves as an associate professor in the Department of Cardiology at Samsung Seoul Hospital and Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine. He conducts various therapeutic studies including interventional procedures for heart diseases. He presented research that diagnoses the potential for preemptive treatment to establish safer transplantation techniques capable of controlling acute rejection, which occurs in up to 30% of heart transplant patients.

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