Korean biopharma shoots for the moon at JPM Healthcare Conference

With the global life science industry’s eyes set on San Francisco, Korea’s emerging or rising biopharma companies gathered in the Bay area to join the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

Lotte Biologics CEO Richard Lee speaks during the 42nd J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Tuesday at the Marriott Marquis hotel dedicated to the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions' biotech and pharmaceutical companies. [LOTTE BIOLOGICS]

SAN FRANCISCO — With the global life science industry’s eyes set on San Francisco, Korea’s emerging or rising biopharma companies gathered in the Bay area to join the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

Lotte Biologics CEO Richard Lee put “design” front and center in the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO)’s plan for the upcoming plants in Songdo, Incheon, during his presentation at the Marriott Marquis hotel on Tuesday. The venue has been dedicated to smaller biopharmaceutical companies from the Asia-Pacific and Latin American regions.

Lotte Biologics is attending the annual investment symposium as a presenter for the second consecutive year.

During the presentation, Lee outlined details of Lotte Biologics’ plan to build three 120,000-liter (126,800-quart) antibody drug production facilities by 2030, which was announced last year. If the three plants become fully operational, the total production capacity of Lotte Biologics will rise to 395,000 liters, from the current 35,000 liters of its Syracuse plant acquired from Bristol-Myers Squibb.

“When we say ‘design,’ the word doesn’t refer to fashion,” said Lee during a press conference on Monday held ahead of his presentation.

“Rather, it means we put priority in the design of the plant, the quality of the products, and manual operations in order to focus on enhancing quality from the very beginning,” said Lee.

Lotte Biologics set up a new system named Titer Flex Quad Bioreactor System which will be able to handle high-titer products, according to the CEO.

“When we first entered the market, many hadn’t heard of our name,” said Lee, who has been actively engaging in global networking. “But as of late, many are approaching us first for collaboration.”

Lotte Biologics is also building a facility dedicated to antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), which enables improved anti-cancer therapeutic effects with minimum damage to non-tumor cells, at its Syracuse site. The facility is set to begin operations by 2025.

Yuhan Corporation, Korea’s leading pharmaceutical company in revenue, hopes to become one of the top 50 big pharma in the world with new drugs to follow the success of its lung cancer treatment, Leclaza.

Yuhan Corporation R&D President Kim Yeol-hong speaks during the 42nd J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Tuesday at the Marriott Marquis hotel dedicated to the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions' biotech and pharmaceutical companies. [YUHAN CORPORATION]

Kim Yeol-hong, Yuhan’s president of research and development (R&D), said in his presentation on Wednesday that the company will work hard to become one of the “top 50 pharmaceutical companies globally by 2026, by increasing our revenue to up to $3.1 billion, which is more than 100 percent increase compared to that of last year."

Yuhan’s non-small lung cancer treatment Leclaza, which has been licensed out to Johnson & Johnson for global development, was approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for first-line chemotherapy, after the regulator gave the green light for the medication for second-line treatment in 2021. Starting from this year, it is covered by national health care insurance in Korea.

Johnson & Johnson CEO Joaquin Duato mentioned the Mariposa studies — the clinical studies on chemotherapy combination of amivantamab and lazertinib — during his presentation at the main Grand Ballroom in the Westin St. Francis Hotel on Monday as one of the company’s important filings of late.

J&J and Yuhan are waiting for the sales approval of the chemo-free combination from the European and U.S. regulators.

After Leclaza’s global success, Yuhan is seeking to find a potent successor. Two of the most promising pipelines so far, according to Yuhan, are allergy treatment candidate YH35324 and bispecific antibody YH32367.

The goal is to launch at least two new drugs to the market by 2026, Kim said.

Kakao Healthcare, the digital health care subsidiary of Korea’s tech giant Kakao, introduced its upcoming glucose monitoring service Pasta for diabetes patients.

“In the past 10 years, we have had great achievements in cancer, rare diseases or some genomic cases, but not in chronic diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes,” said Hwang Hee, Kakao Healthcare CEO and a former professor of medicine in pediatrics at the Seoul National University.

Kakao Healthcare CEO Hwang Hee speaks during the 42nd J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Tuesday at the Marriott Marquis hotel dedicated to the Asia-Pacific and Latin America regions' biotech and pharmaceutical companies. [KAKAO HEALTHCARE]

Pasta, which stands for personalized, accessible, technology-enabled, supportive and affordable, is a glucose monitoring service that helps diabetes patients track their glucose levels in real-time and build a healthier lifestyle, according to Kakao Healthcare.

The service was developed in partnership with Dexcom, Novo Nordisk and i-SENS.

If a user takes a picture of their meal, the AI-powered application can automatically analyze the estimated calories and protein-glucose ratio of the food. It also provides an online community where friends and family can share their health data if needed, and integrates the collected data to medical facilities’ electronic medical records.

The plan is to launch the service in Korea in February and later expand the market into Japan by the end of this year and to the United States next year.

Kakao also introduced its Project Delta, an AI-based medical data curation system, which facilitates access and analysis of hospital data for pharma companies, medical facilities and research institutes. The company formed R-Alliance, a research collaboration network involving Korea’s major hospitals, and also signed an agreement for business cooperation with R’Oreal to develop data-based cosmetics.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]