Samyang Group to set up drug development firm in Boston

Korea’s Samyang Group will establish a pharmaceutical company in Boston, a global talent pool for biotech industries, in the third quarter to discover and develop promising therapeutics for cancer and other diseases.

Samyang Group is in the process to hire key personnel for the new pharma unit in the U.S. to be established as early as August and has a plan to invest more than 100 billion won ($90.55 million) per year in pharma research, group chairman Kim Yoon said during an exclusive interview with Maeil Business Newspaper in Monaco, where Kim represented Korean business leaders at the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 held on Saturday.

"The new legal entity will be a frontline unit to lead the investment in the early stage research of oncology drugs and novel therapeutic candidates,” Kim said.

Samyang Group, which kicked off Korea’s first farming enterprise in 1924, runs 17 subsidiaries with a focus on food, chemistry, packaging, and bio-science as its key pillars. Samyang plans to inject 2.4 trillion won in total into these businesses by 2020 to become an enterprise with annual revenue of 5 trillion won, Kim said. A large portion of the investment, about 2 trillion won, will be used to acquire a global company.

“We will concentrate resources on promising candidates in the early stage of development and sell a marketing license to global players just before or after clinical research, and continue the development process to commercial production under joint operating agreements,” Kim added.

Samyang Group launched Samyang Biopharmaceuticals in 2011, which has emerged as a new front-runner in the local bioscience industry with its leadership in paclitaxel products to treat lung cancer and breast cancer.

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