In January every year, all eyes of global biopharmaceutical companies are on the J.P. Morgan Health Conference, the largest healthcare conference in the world that draws institutional investors’ attention worldwide.

Many Korean drugmakers plan to present their past performances and future potential during the 2022 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, held online from Jan. 10-13.
Many Korean drugmakers plan to present their past performances and future potential during the 2022 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, held online from Jan. 10-13.

For the same reason, many Korean drugmakers will participate in the 2022 conference despite the protracted Covid-19 pandemic, according to industry watchers.

The JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, which celebrates its 40th anniversary, will hold next year’s event online from Jan. 10-13. More than 500 pharmaceutical companies worldwide will participate in the annual meeting, sharing new R&D achievements and discussing the biopharmaceutical industry's future direction.

The conference provides Korean pharmaceutical firms with opportunities to conclude licensing-out or partnership agreements with global giants.

Samsung Biologics, SK Pharmteco, JW Pharmaceutical, Aptabio, Eutilex, Genome & Company, and NeoImmuneTech, Icure, and Pharmabcine have already announced that they will participate in the 2022 meeting.

Samsung Biologics CEO John Rim will present what the company achieved in 2021 in three main business areas – contract manufacturing organization (CMO), contract drug development organization (CDO), and contract research organization (CRO).

Lim will also provide an update on the company’s CMO contract to manufacture Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine and emphasize its competitiveness.

SK Pharmteco, a 100 percent subsidiary of SK and an integrated CMO player, will explain the company’s aggressive investment in 2021, including the acquisition of Yposkesi, a France-based CDMO company, in March, and in CBM, a U.S. CDMO company specializing in gene and cell therapy, in November.

JW Pharmaceutical also shows high expectations about the conference with plans to introduce research projects through video conferencing to foreign pharmaceutical companies and global investors and conduct one-on-one partnership consultations.

The company also plans to promote technology transfer for URC102, a gout treatment, to global partners, except for China. JW Pharmaceutical had signed a technology transfer contract for URC102 with Simcere in China in 2019.

Aptabio, a company that develops intractable anticancer drugs and diabetes complications, received an invitation from the conference because of APX-115, a treatment for diabetic nephropathy.

The company has confirmed that APX-115 reduced UACR (urine albumin-creatinine ratio), a major biomarker for evaluating kidney disease, by more than 20 percent compared to the baseline through a phase 2 clinical trial conducted in the U.S. Aptabio is aiming to sign a technology export contract for APX-115 during the conference.

Eutilex will emphasize that its T-cell immune cell treatment EBViNT recently added indication for treating Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive gastric cancer, which has no current standard treatment. The company also will share the clinical progress of its other immunotherapies during the conference.

Genome & Company, which is developing new antibody drugs and immunotherapies using microbiome, will participate in the conference for five consecutive years.

The company has produced positive results by making the most of the annual event and expects to show similar performances next year.

The company signed a joint R&D contract with Merck KGaA and Pfizer for GEN-001, its microbiome-based anticancer drug, in 2019, and signed a joint R&D contract with an unnamed multinational pharmaceutical company to develop a treatment for gastroesophageal junction cancer and gastric adenocarcinoma.

NeoImmuneTech will present clinical results for 30 minutes at the biotech and plan to meet with investors to discuss the direction of commercialization of NT-I7.

NT-I7 is a substance that induces T-cell amplification, and the company is currently conducting clinical trials with immunotherapies developed by MSD, Roche, and BMS.

Icure Pharmaceutical, which attracted attention after receiving approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for the world's first Donerion Patch, a donepezil patch product to treat Alzheimer's, in November, also plans to have discussions with global pharmaceutical companies to find a global entry partner for the patch.

Besides, Pharmabcine plans to present its core technologies and pipelines, such as PMC-403, PMC-402, and PMC-309, to multinational pharmaceutical companies.

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