SK Biopharm eyes Asia's No.1 spot in radioactive drug market

South Korea’s SK Biopharmaceuticals Co. is aiming to triple its enterprise value to $15 billion by 2026 with the goal of rising to the top rung in Asia’s radiopharmaceuticals market within five years, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

It will focus on next-generation anti-cancer treatments such as oral radiopharmaceutical therapies (RPT), targeted protein degradation (TPD) and cell gene therapies, its CEO Lee Donghoon told reporters at a press conference, marking his first anniversary as head of the SK Group unit.

He said he expects the markets for those next-generation drugs to take off in five to seven years.

“We will take a leap forward to become Asia’s No. 1 radiopharmaceuticals company within five years,” he said.

“By 2026, SK Biopharmaceuticals will position itself as a big biotech company with an enterprise value of $15 billion.”

That figure is three times its current market cap of 6 trillion won ($4.8 billion).

It will finance the expansion with profits from Cenobamate, its first commercialized drug. The epilepsy treatment has seen its its market share in the US grow since receiving the green light from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2019.

By 2032, SK expects Cenobamate to generate 4 trillion won in accumulated cash.

“We will likely launch our second commercial drug for central nervous system (CNS) diseases after Cenobamate around 2025 to 2026,” Lee said.

To do so, it is looking to buy a CNS drug candidate. 

STABLE SUPPLY OF RAW MATERIALS

It will obtain a steady supply of radioisotopes, a radiopharmaceutical therapy material, from TerraPower. In 2022, SK Group invested $250 million in the US-based small modular reactor developer, founded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

To reinforce its targeted protein degradation (TPD) platform, it recently acquired ProteoVant Sciences Inc. for 62 billion won, in a joint purchase with SK Inc.

The purchase allows the SK Group unit to use the US biotech company’s R&D center for cancer treatments but also adopt the latter’s TPD technology to develop new drugs for CNS diseases.

SK Biopharmaceuticals also seeks to venture into new cell and gene therapies in collaboration with SK Inc. and SK Pharmteco Co.

“We will transform from a drug candidate materials developer into a new drug development platform and expand into the anti-cancer therapy market, going beyond therapies for CNS disorders,” Lee said.

Write to Jeong-Min Nam at peux@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article