The 38th JP Morgan Healthcare Conference ended

Introduced development status of metabolic diseases treatments including Hanmi, LG and Daewoong

Samsung Bio and Celltrion announce plans for targeting US and China directly in the field

Excopry and Sunosi by SK biopharmaceuticals announce US and European launches this year

Se-chang Kwon, president of Hanmi Pharmaceutical, who attended the 38th JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, announces the vision of Hanmi Pharmaceutical and its 2020 R&D strategy

The 38th JP Morgan Healthcare Conference ended.

 

This year, more than 30 Korean pharmaceutical bio companies visited San Francisco, USA.

 

Seven companies, including Samsung BioLogics, Celltrion, Hanmi Pharm, and LG Chem, made public announcements.

 

Other pharmaceutical companies also had a competition behind the curtains There are three keywords that summarize the performance of Korean companies who attended this year's JP Morgan Healthcare Conference: ▲overseas expansion, ▲metabolic disease, and ▲global clinical launch.

 

Samsung Biologics and Celltrion, two of the largest 'guests' of Korean companies, announced their plans to directly target overseas markets.

 

Hanmi Pharm, LG Chem, and Daewoong Pharm introduced plans to develop metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity.

 

The world's first non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) drug under development by Hanmi and Daewoong's next-generation gastroesophageal reflux disease drug have once again announced that global clinical trials are going well.

 

SK Biopharm's Excopry and Sunosi announced their launch and full-scale sales in the US and Europe respectively.

 

The presentations and activities of each company's JP Morgan Healthcare Conference are as follows.

 

◆Samsung Biologics = Samsung Biologics announced in April that it will establish a R&D Center for Biopharmaceutical Development (CDO) in San Francisco.

 

Samsung Bio is the first US subsidiary.

 

The strategy is to establish a forward base in the US, the largest market.

 

First, the company aims to increase contract development orders, and eventually expand the scope to consignment production (CMO).

 

Samsung Biologics' number of CMO items increased to 27 in 2018 and 35 in 2019.

 

This year, the plan is to increase the number to 47.

 

For this, it said that it is considering the construction of a fourth plant in Songdo, Incheon.

 

At present, the 3 plants of 364,000 liters are said to be in full operation.

 

What Samsung Biologics expects is Biogen's Alzheimer's drug.

 

At the conference, Biogen said it is pushing for a US product license to launch the Alzheimer's drug, Aducanumab.

 

Samsung Biologics and Biogen are deeply connected as the first and second shareholders of Samsung Bioepis.

 

◆Celltrion = Celltrion announced that it will launch into China after Europe and the US.

 

Celltrion plans to enter the Chinese market by itself, not in the form of a joint venture (JV).

 

This goal was announced directly by Chairman Jung-jin Suh.

 

"We are working on a business agreement with the provincial government of China to build 4 plants of 120,000 liters locally, and we are going to make an agreement this month, and we will start construction in April".

 

He also introduced plans for the development of an insulin biosimilar.

 

Through self-development and co-development, he has succeeded in the diabetes treatment market of ₩47 trillion worldwide.

 

Chairman Jung-jin Suh also announced the possibility of the merger of Celltrion Group.

 

In the Q&A process, he mentioned the possibility of merging Celltrion, Celltrion Healthcare, and Celltrion Pharmaceuticals.

 

The merger's market cap is estimated at ₩23 trillion.

 

However, Celltrion is conducting an internal review of the merger on the premise that the share of shareholders of the company and its affiliates is high on the following day, but there are no specific details such as the method and timing of the merger.

 

◆Hanmi Pharm = Hanmi Pharm has focused on the introduction of NASH drugs and obesity drugs returned from Janssen.

 

HM15211, which is being developed as a NASH treatment, said it plans to launch a global clinical phase II in the second quarter of this year.

 

According to the phase I of clinical trials, various effects, including rapid and strong fatty liver reduction, were confirmed.

 

Another key challenge, the HM12525A, was also introduced.

 

Last year, Janssen returned the rights to Hanmi after completing Phase II clinical trials.

 

Janssen has been conducting Phase II clinical trials to develop drugs that treat obesity and diabetes.

 

Unlike Jansen, Hanmi Pharm plans to develop this drug as a dual-mechanism for obesity, which is superior to existing drugs.

 

Hanmi Pharm explained that it is the world's first once-weekly anti-obesity drug, and demonstrated the superior weight loss effect compared to the existing daily anti-obesity drug through Global Phase II.

 

◆Daewoong Pharmaceutical has unveiled its global development roadmap for 'Fexuprazan', the next-generation gastroesophageal reflux disease treatment.

 

Last year, Phase III clinical trials were completed, and a product license was applied to the MFDS.

 

In particular, it plans to enter clinical trials in the US and China within this year.

 

Through this, it announced that it would enter the global market worth ₩40 trillion.

 

In addition, Daewoong introduced the positive results in Phase III clinical trials of HL036, a new dry eye treatment drug under development with Hanall Biopharma.

 

◆LG Chem = Ji-woong Sohn, head of the Life Sciences Division, explained the anticancer, immune, diabetes, and metabolic disease pipelines.

 

According to LG Chem, the drug, gout treatment entered the US Phase II trial, inhibits xanthine oxidase which is a protein involved in the excessive production of uric acid.

 

In the previous phase I, the possibility of side effects of cardiovascular disease indicated as a disadvantage of the existing uric acid inhibitors was low.

 

◆SK Biopharm has updated its sales plans for the new epilepsy drug, Excopry, and the sleep disorder, Sunosi.

 

In case of Excopry, it plans to start negotiations on drug prices and full-scale marketing activities for Excopry from March after the US DEA review.

 

Sunosi expects to be approved for a European marketing license as early as next week.

 

Jazz Pharmaceuticals, which bought Sunosi's technology, said Sunosi's European Drug Administration's product licensing is expected next week.

 

Through this, in June, it announced plans to launch in Germany throughout Europe.

 

◆Genexine = HPV vaccine GX-188E has been released.

 

GX-188E is undergoing phase 2a clinical trial with Kitruda in patients with recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer.

 

Genexine explained that it achieved the planned target response rate early.

 

◆SCM Life Sciences reportedly focused on finding clinical partners in the field of kidney cancer.

 

The company announced last week that it has applied for a phase 2b trial with the US FDA.

 

◆Genome&Company = Genome & Company, a microbiome company, said it has signed a combined clinical contract with Merck and Pfizer, a global pharmaceutical company.

 

Phase I clinical trial for the combination of Merck and Pfizer's anticancer drugs, Bavencio and Genome&Company, for GEN-001.

 

◆HLB said it had concurrent meetings with multinational pharmaceutical companies for licensing in and out agreements.

 

The company said it had a meeting with a Japanese and European partner to license out Rivoceranib, which is being developed for gastric cancer treatment.

 

However, the sales schedule for Rivoceranib scheduled for the fourth quarter was explained as "The FDA continues to discuss." ◆Eubiologics announced that it has signed a Term Sheet agreement with POP Biotech in the US to establish a joint venture.

 

It is a combination of Eubiologics' EuIMT(immune enhancer) technology and POP Biotech's SNAP platform (antigen delivery) technology.

 

The company announced that it reported establishment in the US within March of this year and develop vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), shingles virus (VZV) and Alzheimer's as its primary targets.