Korean pharmas busy recruiting talent from global pharmas

Handok appoints former Pfizer personnel Miyeon Kim as new CEO, Yoon-Mi Kim as Executive Director

Hana Pharm appoints former Janssen employee Tae-Hong Choi as President/CEO to accelerate its global business

Anterogen, Shaperon, Lotte Biologics also appoints personnel well-versed in global affairs

Korea's pharmaceutical and bio businesses are busy recruiting talents from multinational pharmaceutical companies to further accelerate their global entry.

 

Handok appointed Miyeon Kim (56) as the new CEO as of July 1st.

 

At Pfizer, the new CEO Kim worked as the Strategic Planning Manager, Product Manager, Marketing Manager, and as the BU Lead of the company’s Established Products Business Unit.

 

Afterward, she was appointed VP of Pfizer’s Established Products Business Unit at Pfizer US and led the US Brands Team.

 

Kim also has served as the Cardiovascular Metabolic Franchise Head and Country General Manager of Alcon.

 

In June, Handok had appointed Yoon-Mi Kim as Executive Director to head its ETC business unit.

 

Executive Director Kim started her career in 2001 as a sales and marketing manager at Handok.

 

At Pfizer Korea, she served as the Marking Manager for Viagra and Champix, and as Director of Business Operations and Strategy, Oncology at Pfizer APAC Region.

 

Until recently, she had served as a Hematology & Oncology BU Lead at BMS before returning to Hanok.

 

Hana Pharm appointed Tae-Hong Choi (66) as its new President/CEO.

 

President Choi had previously served as the CEO of Boryung Pharmaceutical from January 2013 to March 2019, then as CEO of Daewon Pharmaceutical from June 2019 to 2022.

 

Choi has extensive experience in multinational pharmaceutical companies before leading various Korean pharmaceutical companies.

 

He joined Janssen Korea in 1987 and served as the VP of the Korean and Hong Kong Janssen and as the Head of the North Asian region, etc.

 

Anterogen will hold a special shareholders meeting on September 4th to discuss the appointment of Hong-Ki Ryu (66) as the full-time auditor.

 

After working as a marketing and planning executive at various domestic and multinational pharmaceutical companies including AstraZeneca, Novartis, JW Pharmaceutical, etc., Rhu joined AbbVie (then Abbott) in 2004 and rose to the position of CEO in 2008.

 

Rhu continued to lead the company until early 2019 even after Abbott separated into the current AbbVie and Abbott in 2013.

 

Also, Shaperon has appointed former GSK executive Yeon-Sam Oh as Head of Business Development, and Lotte Biologics appointed former Roche and Genentech executive Hyungduk Yoo as Chief Operation Officer (COO) this year.

 

Global business expansion The domestic pharma and bio companies’ recruitment of personnel from multinational companies is interpreted as the companies’ move to advance into the global market.

 

Hana Pharm is one example.

 

The company had posted annual sales of KRW 210.8 billion last year.

 

Among them, exports amounted to KRW 1.3 billion, less than 1% of the total sales.

 

The company’s sales depend on domestic demand.

 

It had posted no overseas sales in the Q1 this year.

 

President Tae-Hong Choi is well-versed in global affairs to the extent that he served as the General Manager of the North Asian region at Janssen Korea.

 

While serving at Boryung Pharmaceutical, he demonstrated his overseas proficiency by winning several export contracts for Kanarb (high blood pressure drug).

 

Most of Boryung Pharmaceutical's exports of Kanarb occurred after President Choi was appointed in 2013.

 

Choi is expected to focus on the global business at Hana Pharm.

 

He expects to create synergy with Director Yerim Cho (43, second daughter of the owner), who is in charge of the global business.

 

The preliminary preparations for the global advancement are complete.

 

Last year, Hana Pharm completed the construction of a production plant to produce the new anesthetic drug ‘Byfabo Inj.’ In 2020, the company acquired the right to sign exclusive contracts in 6 Southeast Asian countries to expand overseas sales of its new anesthetic drug.

 

The company recently received approval in the Philippines, one of 6 countries, and is preparing to release Byfabo there in Q4.

 

Also, the company is aiming to sign consignment manufacturing (CMO) export agreements in Europe and Japan.