Contract manufacturing emerges as new opportunity for Korean bio firms

來源: 開云體育app官方網站 時間: 2023-01-31 18:12:10

Jason Lee, left, senior manager of Global Business Division at Yungjin Pharm, explains the company's new drug pipelines to an Indian buyer at the company's booth during the CPHI exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul

By Baek Byung-yeul

FRANKFURT ― The CPHI exhibition has become a place for finding new growth engines for Yungjin Pharm, Daewon Pharmaceutical, Kyongbo Pharm and other small Korean bio companies as they actively try to attract new clients for their contract manufacturing organization (CMO) business, according to the companies, Wednesday.

They are all in agreement that developing new drugs or selling the intellectual property of candidates for new drugs to big pharmaceutical companies is the best option to leap forward.

However, they added that new drug development is too costly and takes a lot of time with a slim chance of success, which eventually leads them to turn their focus on manufacturing drugs for global biopharmaceutical companies.

"Many Korean bio companies are trying to develop new drugs to diversify their business portfolios. But, the probability of failure is very high, so companies with production facilities are paying a lot of attention to producing medicines for their customers. In that regard, it is very important to participate in the CPHI trade show where they can meet and talk directly with many clients," an official of a Korean bio company participating in the show said.

Promotional booths of Korean bio companies are seen at the CPHI exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul

The CPHI event, arguably one of the world's largest biopharmaceutical exhibitions, has been providing them valuable opportunities as the three-day trade show held in the German city of Frankfurt features over 2,500 companies from 170 countries, including more than 60 companies in Korea.

While large companies such as Samsung Biologics, Celltrion and Lotte Biologics have set up their own promotional booths, smaller companies joined the event via financial and administrative support from two state-run agencies: the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and the Korea Pharmaceutical Traders Association (KPTA).

Yungjin Pharm, a subsidiary of tobacco maker KT&G, said they joined the event with their own booth. The company said its primary goal is to promote its bio-raw materials and finished products such as its antibiotic products to global buyers. But at the same time, the company also wants to generate new clients for its CMO businesses to grow its presence in the global market further.

"Our company is not building a separate production facility only for the CMO business, but is using our existing facilities for that business. Our Jeonju plant mainly produces raw materials and the Hwaseong plant produces finished products, and they all meet GMP (good manufacturing practice) standards," said Jason Lee, a senior manager of the Global Business Division at Yungjin Pharm.

"Many customers visit our booth to inquire about our new drug development pipeline and the capabilities of our CMO business," the senior manager added.

Officials of Daewon Pharmaceutical promote its products and technology to visitors during the CPHI exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Baek Byung-yeul

Daewon Pharmaceutical, best known for its Coldaewon cold medicine ― a stick-type pouch ― in the Korean market, is aiming to do a CMO business that produces various medicines for customer clients in its stick pouches.

"Our Coldaewon cold medicine has gained popularity in Korea because it is easy to take. It especially gained huge attention as the COVID-19 Omicron variant swept the nation early this year," said Jonathan Baek, senior managing director of Daewon Pharmaceutical's marketing department. "At the CPHI, we look forward to meeting more customers who want to produce stick pouch-type drugs."

Baek said that this year is the 12th time that Daewon has participated. "Marketing activities were difficult as we had to meet customers only online during the pandemic. At this trade show, we would like to meet customers in person, show them our products and promote our CMO business," he said.

Kyongbo Pharm, known for producing synthetic active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), said the company is actively expanding its contract development and manufacturing company (CDMO) business that develops and produces drugs for its clients.

"We are doing the CDMO business with clients based in Korea, Japan and China as well as the European countries. Currently, we are in the process of adding one more European company to our CMO business. The CDMO business has emerged as a high-value-added business engine because we have the capability to develop and produce drugs for our clients," Ma Hyo-il, a team manager in the company said.