K-bio's new drugs to become game changers in global market

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By Baek Byung-yeul

Korea's pharmaceutical and bio companies are emerging as game changers in the global market as they develop new drugs and sell test kits during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to industry analysts Friday.

Given only the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries have shown over 200 percent growth in the past 10 years, the analysts said the bio industry is highly likely to become a core exporter for Korea.

The Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association said Korean biopharmaceutical companies are chasing international opportunities because the domestic bio market is estimated at 20 trillion won while the global market is about 1,400 trillion won ― three times larger than the semiconductor market.

Korea's bio companies have been in the spotlight this year after Seegene, a local diagnostic assay maker, released its test kits for COVID-19 just three weeks after development started in February. The company said its second-quarter sales came to 256.6 billion due to soaring demand for the kits.

Korean companies also have been emerging in the new drug development sector.

Celltrion, arguably one of the leading pharmaceutical companies here, recently began a phase 1 clinical trial of its CT-P59 drug by enrolling 32 healthy volunteers who have not contracted COVID-19.

The company also received clinical trial approval from Britain's Medicines and HealthCare Products Regulatory Agency in July and is recruiting volunteers for the treatment.

Celltrion said it plans to begin mass production of CT-P59 at its plant in Incheon so it can supply the drug as soon as it is approved.

Another leading drugmaker, Yuhan, also has been improving its research and development efforts to launch new drugs. One of them is Lazertinib, a therapeutic candidate for the treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Despite the economic fallout from the virus pandemic, the company invested more than 80 billion won in R&D in the first half of this year.

SamChunDang Pharm also held a presentation for investors on Wednesday and introduced the S-Pass platform that can convert injected drugs to pills.

On a related note, the country's main bourse operator the Korea Exchange said Thursday that it will launch the KRX BBIG (battery, bio, internet, games) index in October to better inform investors.