Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- Buoyed by the growing popularity of biosimilar drugs, the head of South Korea's leading biopharmaceutical venture group Celltrion unveiled an ambitious project Friday to nurture his company as one of the world's three major biotech firms through active expansion.

"We will be reborn as a comprehensive pharmaceutical company," Chairman Seo Jung-jin told shareholders in a telephone speech from Austria, adding Cenlltrion aims to become one of the world's three largest biotech companies in 2020.

Celltrion has disclosed a plan to build a third plant overseas at a location selected in the first half of the year. Seo said his group could build a wholly-owned factory in an unidentified Asian country. "We will put a priority on the country where Celltrion can secure a 100 percent stake to prevent technology spills."

In December last year, Celltrion forged a joint venture deal with Tasly, a Chinese pharmaceutical company. "For our entry into China, we plan to complete the establishment of a Chinese subsidiary in the first half of this year," Seo said, adding his company may seek the acquisition of an Indian company to strengthen the synthetic drug business.

Celltrion's stock, coveted by foreign and domestic investors, has surpassed Hyundai Motor's in terms of market value.

In 2017, Celltrion's net profit rose to 403 billion won from 221 billion won a year ago, helped by brisk sales of Remsima, a copy of Janssen Biotech's Remicade treating rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. Truxima, used to treat patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and rheumatoid arthritis, is also popular in Europe. Herzuma is used to treat breast cancer.