Kolon Pharma to merge with anti-cancer drug developer Platbio

Kolon Pharma, the pharmaceutical affiliate of South Korea's Kolon Group, is merging with anti-cancer drug developer Platbio to advance the development of new medicines through better distribution capacity.

Both companies on Wednesday announced their merger through a share exchange method of 2.38 shares of Kolon Pharma for each stock of Platbio.

Founded in 1958, the pharmaceutical company sells incrementally modified drugs, generic medicine and health functional food for pulmonology, dermatology and orthopedics. Platbio is a bio company founded in 2018 that develops drugs to fight cancer likes those of the pancreas and ovaries.

The expected date of the merger is June 1. Kolon Pharma CEO Jeon Jae-kwang and Platbio CEO Kim Sun-jin will keep their respective leadership systems afterwards, with Jeon to head the pharmaceutical side and Kim new drug development.

"Given this time of an unfavorable environment for bio investment, promising bio startups, conglomerate affiliates, and bio and traditional pharmaceutical companies will join hands to create a new drug development model in Korea," an industry source said.

After the merger, Kolon Pharma plans to emerge as a global developer of anti-cancer drugs through moves like entering the Chinese market, as well as reviewing the possibility of listing. Platbio, which has secured solid capital, will speed up commercialization based on its platform of anti-cancer drug development. 

The goal is to license out candidate treatments for pancreatic and ovarian cancer and leukemia by 2025.

Write to Ji-Hyun Lee at bluesky@hankyung.com