The business world devoted to’new food’ bio… New drug and consignment production speed battle

Input 2021.03.24 14:15 | Revision 2021.03.24 14:38

After Samsung, SK and LG, Lotte also entered bio
Samsung Bio surpasses 1 trillion in sales in 9 years
SK Bio subsidiaries, public offering stocks rage
LG Chem invests 200 billion won annually to speed up new drug development

It is predicted that Lotte Group, the fifth-largest business group after Samsung, LG, and SK, will revitalize the domestic biopharmaceutical market by selecting’Bio’ as a new growth engine business. There is also an opinion that it will be possible to create a virtuous cycle structure for vitalizing the bio market through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) between large companies and bio ventures.

According to related industries on the 24th, Lotte Holdings is discussing various cooperation plans, such as acquiring a stake in the bio-venture company NG Chem Life Science, and joint venture (JV). Through this, it is expected to engage in new drug development and drug consignment production (CMO) business.

It is known that Lotte will also establish a separate joint venture (JV) with NG Chem Life Sciences. The investment amount is expected to be at least 150 billion won. The investment is handled by Lotte Holdings, a group control tower. The specific investment scale and timing will be decided before and after the general shareholders’ meeting to be held on the 26th. Lotte Chemical, a chemical subsidiary, is also planning to participate as an equity investor. NG Chem Life Sciences is a new drug developer established in July 1999. The company is developing a new drug candidate EC-18 that chemically synthesizes the ingredients in antler.

If the acquisition of Lotte Group’s stake in NG Chem Life Sciences becomes a reality, Lotte Group will be a next-generation new business, such as Samsung Group’s Samsung Biologics and Samsung Bioepis, SK Group’s SK Bioscience, SK Biopharm, SK Biotech, and LG Group’s LG Chem. It will enter into the phosphorus bio industry. The way Lotte Group enters the bio business is likely to follow Samsung Biologics, which started with the CMO business and is expanding its scope.

Lotte Group’s attention to the’bio’ business is dominated by the opinion that the impact of successful investment cases by business groups such as Samsung and SK was large. Regarding this, an industry insider said, “Samsung and SK are investing in the bio business early, finding new growth engines through new drug development and CMO business, and making results.”

Samsung, SK, and LG Group have invested in the bio business as a new type business and are making results. The Samsung Group selected bio as the most elaborate business group among the five new types of business. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong emphasized the importance of the bio business whenever there was an opportunity. Samsung Biologics was born with the first entry into the bio business in 2011. Samsung Biologics has grown into the world’s largest biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing (CMO) company. As a result of these efforts, Samsung Biologics surpassed KRW 1 trillion in sales after 9 years of establishment. Samsung Biologics is expanding its scope by recording 28% of the global bio CMO market share.

SK Bioscience and SK Biopharm of SK Group, which were listed on the 18th and last July, respectively, sparked a public offering stock fever. The fact that SK Group is making achievements through the successive listing of bio-affiliated companies seems to have been a catalyst for the advancement of Lotte Group’s biotechnology. The market capitalization of SK Bioscience and SK Biopharm is about 19.23 trillion won. Recently, SK Bioscience has attracted attention as a bio-expectant as it won consignment production of a novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) vaccine from AstraZeneca and NovaVax. SK Biotech, an affiliate, is expanding its pharmaceutical CMO business to global pharmaceutical companies such as the US and Europe.

LG Chem is also accelerating the development of new drugs such as diabetes, metabolism, anti-cancer, and immunity by investing more than 200 billion won in R&D this year to foster the bio business. In 2017, LG Chem merged with LG Life Sciences, a subsidiary of the group, to focus on fostering the bio business, a new growth engine for the future. The merger between the two companies reflects LG Group’s expectations to foster the bio business. Recently, LG Chem has expanded the entire new drug pipeline (candidate substances) to about 40. The number of pipelines was nearly four times higher than that of only 10 pipelines before the merger. LG Chem is continuing to strengthen cooperation with domestic bio-ventures, such as receiving adeno-associated virus vector candidates containing degenerative arthritis-related genes from bio-venture ICM (ICM).

There is also a prospect that the entry of the business community into the bio business will become a’hwasoobun’ for the growth of the domestic biopharmaceutical industry. Lee Seung-gyu, vice chairman of the Korea Bio Association, said, “From the perspective of bio-ventures, you can receive investment for the development of new drug candidates, and from the standpoint of large companies, you can transfer technology from bio-ventures to innovative new drug candidates to accelerate the development of new drugs.” “It is encouraging that we can also explore the possibility of expanding our business through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) with bio-ventures.”