Celltrion Chairman Seo Jung-jin, who left a mark in the domestic biotechnology industry, stepped down from the post on the last day of 2020 and began a new challenge of a blood test startup, the company said.

At the “Healthcare Innovation 2020” forum in November, Seo said, "I am not sure how many more years I will be working but want to go back as a startup entrepreneur and focus on blood testing." Seo also revealed his plan to retire by the end-2020, at JP Morgan Healthcare Conference 2020 in San Francisco.

Seo decided to drop his chairmanship without a retirement ceremony and have professional managers run the company, Celltrion said.

Industry observers say that Seo has chosen the blood-testing sector because he considered the field would play a key role in future healthcare innovation. Korea is aging rapidly, increasing demand for medical services. However, the number of doctors and medical centers is limited, stressing the need for quicker and easier testing of individuals’ health conditions. 

Seo stressed the need for a system that allows tests at home as he believes telemedicine could solve this problem.

"Once the blood-testing problem is solved, there will be a service available to seven billion people around the world from Korea," Seo said. "I will provide such a service jointly with Amazon."

Celltrion was founded in February 2002 as a joint venture between Nexol Biotech and Baxgen of the United States. The company took over the development of the world's first biosimilar and began making profits from 2010.

Celltrion's biosimilars, including the Remsima for autoimmune disease, entered the U.S. and European market and generated hundreds of billions of won in sales. Biosimilars' successful sales allowed Celltrion to join the so-called “1 trillion won ($920 billion) club” in the shortest time in the domestic pharmaceutical and bio industry.

Chairman Seo also said that his final goal before retirement was to develop and make treatments for the Covid-19.

"Celltrion has already developed and manufactured the Covid-19 therapy to treat 100,000 people, and the company will supply them to the nation at production cost as they are for the public," Seo said.