Celltrion Chairman Seo Jin-seok gives a presentation at Korean Investment Week 2023 on Sept. 12 The use of data and computing is a new paradigm in the biopharmaceutical industry, reducing the new drug development time and cost, Celltrion Inc. Chairman Seo Jin-seok said on Tuesday.
“We are building an independent data bank, including clinical data received from patients,” he told Korea Investment Week 2023, hosted by The Korea Economic Daily that will run through Sept. 15.
“If we select targets that can show actual efficacy based on big data and conduct experiments with a bio foundry company, the time and cost consumed in developing new drugs can be reduced by half,” he said during a presentation at the country’s largest annual investment conference.
Seo is the eldest son of the biosimilar company's founder and Honorary Chairman Seo Jung-jin. He leads Celltrion Inc. and Celltrion Pharm Co.
Seo Jin-seok is the eldest son of founder and Honorary Chairman Seo Jung-jin
ANTIBODY-DRUG CONJUGATES
He picked anticancer drugs, autoimmune disease treatments and metabolic disease treatments as areas that investors need to pay attention to.
Particularly, Celltrion has been making good progress in developing antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). An ADC is a class of biopharmaceutical drugs designed as a targeted therapy for treating cancer.
Regarding immunotherapy, safety concerns about chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) treatment, despite its superior efficacy, are leading pharmaceutical companies to shift toward double and triple antibody treatments.
For solid cancer, Celltrion is in the preclinical development stage of ADC anticancer drugs targeting eight targets, he said. “For the dual antibody development, we are in the stage of discovering targets.”
“You may find good investment opportunities if you keep an eye on players that fit development trends such as ADC, CAR-T and bispecific antibodies,” Seo advised investors at the conference.
Celltrion produces the world's first antibody biosimilar Remsima OLIGOPOLY
Seo predicts only a few players will survive the biosimilar market due to the market’s oligopoly and increasing drug development costs. In this regard, they are expected to actively pursue M&A targets, licensing-out and joint development.
“Before COVID-19, investments were made in early stage development, or bio ventures, but now the money goes only to mega deals that are almost finished and about to be commercialized.”
The funding squeeze and intensifying competition make it difficult for bio ventures to commercialize their products without a production system and distribution and sales network. Thus, they are now focusing on developing new drug candidates to sell them to big pharma.
“With the biosimilar market's oligopoly, the most important thing is marketing,” Seo said, noting that Celltrion has built sales networks in 110 countries.
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