바이오스펙테이터

by Sungmin Kim

▲From top left: Jungjin Seo Celltrion Honorary Chairman, Man-soon Hwang Korea Investment Partners CEO, Yong-Zu Kim Lego ChemBio CEO, Sang Hoon Lee ABL Bio CEO, Christopher Hansung Ko Samsung president

Samsung Biologics was selected as 'Company of the Year in 2022' by CEOs of domestic bio companies. Samsung Biologics overtook Celltrion, which was ranked first last year, to become the most influential company in the domestic bio industry and solidified its position with more than a majority of votes.

Jungjin Seo, honorary chairman of Celltrion, has been named as the person of the year for four consecutive years since 2019, showing continuous influence in the bio industry since his retirement in March last year.

The new move this year is a leap forward for Biotech, which is making meaningful R&D results. If the influence of the corporate sector has been centered on large companies so far, ABL Bio, which signed a large-scale deal with Sanofi earlier this year, was tied for third place with Yuhan, a leading open innovation pharmaceutical company in Korea.

This change also appeared in the field of character influence. Yong-Zu Kim, CEO of LegoChem Biosciences, and Sang Hoon Lee, CEO of ABL Bio, who signed the most license-out and joint research contract in Korea as influential figures in the industry, were listed at the top.

On the 15th, BioSpectator conducted a survey ("BioS Survey") of 69 CEOs of bio companies to commemorate the 6th anniversary of its foundation, "Which company or person do you think is the most influential in the domestic bio industry?" Sixty-nine people answered and counted, including three duplicate responses.

Samsung Biologics was selected as the most influential company, accounting for 51% (37 people, 2 duplicate responses). Last year, Samsung Biologics played an active role during the COVID-19 pandemic by signing a steady consignment production (CMO) contract with Moderna and Global Big Pharma. Samsung Biologics is gaining ground with 20.4% (2nd place) in 2020 → 42.6% (1st place) in 2021 → 51% (1st place) in 2022 in terms of corporate influence in Korea.

It is interpreted that Samsung Biologics's move has another meaning this year. In April, Samsung Biologics acquired a stake in Samsung Bioepis from Biogen and incorporated it as a 100% subsidiary, and began to show its willingness to expand to the new drug development field based on its biopharmaceutical R&D capabilities. The results of the survey seem to reflect expectations for future business expansion.

Samsung Biologics recorded sales of 1.568 trillion won, up 34.6% from the previous year, and operating profit of 538.3 billion won, up 83.5% from the previous year due to CDMO/CMO, etc.

Celltrion ranked 2nd in influential companies with 12.5% (9 people, 1 duplicate). Celltrion is still being recognized for its title as a company that developed the world's first antibody biosimilar, but its influence has decreased compared to last year's 23.5% (2nd place).

Celltrion showed rapid response last year when it launched the COVID-19 antibody treatment "Regkirona" in Korea and Europe, and is conducting follow-up phase 3 clinical trials of cocktail COVID-19 antibody treatments for inhalation. With a different R&D movement than before, Celltrion entered the field of developing new microbiome drugs for autoimmune diseases by signing a joint research contract with KoBioLabs. In addition, it is knocking on the door of new drug development through collaboration with various companies.

In third place, Yuhan Corporation and ABL Bio were jointly listed, accounting for 8.3% (6 people) each. Compared to last year, SK Group ranked 3rd (9 %), Yuhan Corp. (6 %), and Hanmi Pharmaceutical (4 %), it is the first time Biotech companies have risen to the top three in a four-year bio-spectator CEO survey.

Behind ABL Bio's entry into the third place is the license-out deal worth up to $1.06 billion, including a down payment of $75 million for the pre-clinical new drug ’BL301’ signed with Sanofi in January this year. It seems to have won many votes in that it has received the largest down payment among deals signed by domestic biotech so far.

Since its establishment in 2016, ABL Bio has been building a bispecific-antibody (BsAb) platform that has been unfamiliar to the domestic bio industry so far, and four BsAb candidate substances are currently making significant progress in terms of development.

Compared to last year's fourth place after SK Group, Yuhan Corporation moved up one notch to third place this year.

Yuhan Corporation is a leading pharmaceutical company that introduced 'Lazertinib', an EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer treatment, and has been actively conducting open innovation based on successful license out and domestic commercialization results. Therefore, it is recognized as having the highest influence among pharmaceutical companies in the domestic bio industry. Following last year, Yuhan Corporation has continued active joint research, licensees, and equity investments with domestic and foreign biotech and academy this year.

As the fourth-placed company, Hanmi Pharmaceutical and SK/SK Biopharm were jointly selected with three votes each, while LG Chem and Legochem Bio also received 2 votes each. In addition, 3 votes were of the opinion that 'there is no clear company yet'.

Jungjin Seo still remains the most influential person... Sang Hoon Lee as a 'R&D Top', and Kim Yong-joo 'Leap Forward'

Overall, the "Person of the Year 2022" influence survey looked similar to last year, but the nominees were more diverse and the votes were distributed.

First, as the most influential person this year, Jungjin Seo, the honorary chairman of Celltrion, was selected for four consecutive years; 23% (16 people) of votes were obtained. Honorary Chairman Seo is known to have entered the U-Healthcare business related to blood tests after retirement. As he resigned from the front line of management, his influence decreased compared to last year's 53%.

In second place, Hwang Man-soon, CEO of Korea Partners, who is considered a representative figure in Korea's bio-venture capital (VC), took 10.1% (7 votes). Last year, it was tied for second place (6 %), and although the ranking did not change, the influence increased. This is interpreted as the impact of the shrinking investor sentiment in the domestic and foreign pharmaceutical and bio markets, especially the growing concern about financing and IPO by unlisted Biotech executives.

Next, ABL Bio’s CEO Sang Hoon Lee and Lego Chem Bio’s CEO Yong-zu Kim tied for third place with 7.2% (5 votes). Lego Chem Bio is the domestic representative company of 'ADC' and ABL Bio is the domestic representative company of 'bispecific antibody' platform. In particular, it is interpreted that the two representatives were highly evaluated for their willingness to lead science-oriented R&D and new drug candidates to clinical development based on platform technology.

For the fourth most influential person, Christopher Hansung Ko, president of Samsung Bioepis, was named with 5.8% (4 votes). It is one vote away from a tie for the third place. Since taking office as the chairman of the Bio Association in January last year, President Ko has been actively engaged in activities to create a domestic bio-ecosystem. It regularly conducts networking with Biotech representatives, and has been evaluated to be making meaningful results since its inauguration, with the largest increase in new member companies since the foundation of the Korea Bio Association.

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jae-yong Lee and Macrogen Chairman Jeong-sun Seo, who was the former president of the Bio Association, received three votes each, while John Lim, Samsung Biologics CEO, and James Jungkue Lee, CEO of Bridge Biotherapeutics received two votes each. There were many people who got 1 vote, but they were excluded from the count. In this person's influence survey, 15.9% (11 votes) answered 'there is no clear person yet'.

[Companies participating in the 6th anniversary survey of BioSpectator]

69 Korea Biopharma and Biotech companies including KoBioLabs, NeoImmuneTech, NEX-I, Nextgene Biosciences, Noul, Neuramedy, DewCell Biotherapeutics, De novo Biotherapeutics, LegoChem Biosciences, Lunit, MUSTBIO, Medpacto, MetiMedi Pharmaceuticals, Biobab AiBIO, Bio-Pharm Solutions, Vigencell, Boostimmune, Samsung Bioepis, Shaperon, Celltrion, Standigm, SPARK Biopharma, Cytogen, Arum Therapeutics, Amyloid Solution, Avelos Therapeutics, Aevis Bio, Rznomics, Aston Science, AbTis, UPPTHERA, S alpha Therapeutics, ABL Bio, APITBIO, Aimed Bio, Engain, Lmito Therapeutics, Organoidsciences, Autotelic Bio, OliPass, Y-Biologics, Onegene Biotechnology, Wellmarker Bio, EuBiologics, Ingenium Therapeutics, IntoCell, Illimis Therapeutics, Genosco, Genomictree, Geninus, G2GBIO, GenEdit, Kanaph Therapeutics, Kynogen, Qurient, QuBEST BIO, Therapex, Tomocube, Toolgen, Txinno Bioscience, TiumBio, Ticaros, PharmAbcine, PharmCADD, 1ST Biotherapeutics, Platbio, HaplnScience, HanAll Biopharma.