SK Biopharm "Establishing Research Base in the US to Leap into Big Biotech"

"SK Life Science Labs (Labs) will become SK Biopharm's research base in the United States. We will enter the den to catch the tiger directly in the world's top pharmaceutical market, the U.S."

Lee Dong-hoon, CEO of SK Biopharm, is speaking at a press conference held on the 6th (local time) in San Diego, California, USA.
[Photo by Lee Chun-hee]

On the 6th (local time), Lee Dong-hoon, CEO of SK Biopharm, presented a plan to innovate SK Biopharm's R&D based on the cash flow generated by the epilepsy drug Cenobamate, which aims for future sales of $1 billion (about 1.3666 trillion KRW) by 2029, at a press conference held in San Diego, California, USA, where the 2024 BIO International Convention (BIO USA) is taking place. He shared the vision of becoming a "Big Biotech." The CEO said, "A 'light but explosive company' with a market capitalization of about 20 to 30 trillion KRW between big pharma and biotech is what we call 'Big Biotech.' I want to create an organization like Vertex in the U.S. that makes decisions quickly and maintains 4 to 5 products while rapidly replacing them."

The core of this is the U.S. subsidiary Labs. SK acquired Proteovant, a joint venture established with U.S. company Roivant to secure targeted protein degradation (TPD) technology, last year through SK Biopharm and renamed it. TPD is a technology that removes specific proteins causing diseases such as cancer by utilizing the body's protein degradation system. Along with radiopharmaceuticals (RPT) and cell & gene therapies (CGT), it is one of the three major follow-up platforms that SK Biopharm is promoting. The CEO explained, "In Korea, even if you change the head of the research institute, the R&D culture cannot change," and added, "We acquired Labs to become an organization that leads the development direction as a vanguard."

The joint booth of SK Biopharm and SK Bioscience set up at the San Diego Convention Center in the United States, where the 2024 BIO International Convention (BIO USA) is being held.
[Photo by Lee Chunhee]

Through this, SK Biopharm plans to secure a "second product" to complement Cenobamate and also visualize R&D for the three major follow-up platforms. Regarding the second product, he explained, "The way to utilize the U.S. sales force related to Cenobamate is to add an epilepsy-related portfolio," and added, "It would be better if it is a drug that can be sold immediately." He expressed the vision of becoming an epilepsy franchise recognized as "SK Biopharm when it comes to epilepsy" through acquiring rights or technology introduction, and expanding to related drugs and digital therapeutics (DTx).

As the next step, SK Biopharm will actively pursue TPD and RPT among its three major follow-up platforms. Regarding RPT in particular, the CEO said, "Last year, when I saw RPT, antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) came to mind," and added, "I first encountered ADC at the 2015 Jefferies London seminar, and now it has exploded significantly. Last year, when I saw a securities firm holding a large RPT seminar, I predicted it would explode in 7 to 8 years and started promoting the RPT business." In fact, big pharma companies such as Novartis, AstraZeneca, and Eli Lilly are competitively securing RPT pipelines, and the Korean government is actively supporting by holding meetings to hear opinions on RPT support. SK Biopharm plans to disclose a detailed roadmap in the second half of this year.

Among SK Biopharm's delegation to BIO USA this time was Choi Yoon-jung, head of the Business Development Division and the "third generation owner." This is her second major pharmaceutical and biotech event trip following her promotion to division head at the end of last year and attendance at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in January. The CEO said, "We formed a meeting team for business development (BD), investment, and acquisitions, and I oversee the BD team," adding, "There are a lot of meetings." SK Biopharm held a total of 200 meetings at this BIO USA.

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