South Korea’s leading biosimilar firm Celltrion Inc. chairman has revealed the company’s bold ambition to become one of the world’s top three biotechnology firms by 2020 by developing its own new drugs and vaccines.

“We will strive to become a comprehensive pharmaceutical firm… and also world’s top three biotechnology company by 2020 along with Genentech and Amgen,” Seo Jung-jin, the company’s chairman, said in a meeting with shareholders on Friday. Seo participated in the meeting held at Songdo Convensia in Incheon, Gyeonggi Province, over the phone as he is currently away for business trip in Vienna, Austria, to promote overseas marketing of its biosimilars.

During the 40-minute phone call, Seo shared the company’s aggressive goals and plans, including building an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production facility in Asia as an alternative option to expand its facility. The company earlier announced it would build a third production facility overseas and single out a possible location in the first half of this year.

“We are considering building an API production facility in Asia to secure cost competitiveness,” Seo said. “But (this plan) will only be under the condition that priority is given to a country where Celltrion is able to secure full stake to prevent technology leakage.”

He also shared plans to promote direct overseas sales of Celltrion Healthcare, the exclusive distributor for Celltrion’s biosimilar treatments, to become a global biotechnology company. As part of its overseas expansion plans, Celltrion also aims to complete setting up a local entity in China in the first half of this year to advance into the vast market and is considering acquiring a pharmaceutical firm in India to enhance its synthetic drugs portfolio, he added.

Meanwhile, the clinical test for the subcutaneous (SC) version of its biosimilar Remsima is expected to be completed this year for launch next year, according to Seo. The company has also launched clinical tests for biosimilar versions of Humira and Avastin this year.

By Shin Chan-ok and Lee Eun-joo

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