Celltrion Group Chairman Seo Jung-jin announced that the company might look into building a new manufacturing facility in the U.S., in line with U.S. President Joe Biden's recent executive order to bolster U.S.-based biomanufacturing.

"We are keeping a close eye on the Biden executive order," Seo said during a press conference on Wednesday. "With so much of our revenue coming from the U.S. market, there is no reason to avoid building a plant in the U.S."

Seo's comment came after the Biden administration recently announced an executive order on "New Bold Goals and Priorities to Advance American Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing" to strengthen U.S. biopharmaceutical manufacturing and production capabilities.

"While the Biden administration has yet to provide specifics on how the U.S. plans to proceed when the guidelines come out, we intend to embrace the U.S. administration's intentions meaningfully," Seo said.

Seo also stressed plans to begin clinical trials, including nonclinical trials, of 10 new drug candidates in 2024. The company aims to receive approval and market six of them by 2030.

"My focus after returning to the company is to change Celltrion from a biosimilar company to a company with biosimilars and original new drugs," Seo said. "Celltrion currently has 21 drug candidates in its pipeline, with 10 entering the clinic next year, including six antibodies and four anticancer drugs."

While the company plans to conduct clinical trials for some of the candidates, Celltrion will probably enter into a collaboration deal with multinational companies to reduce the development risk, he noted.

"We will also look into licensing out some of the candidates that are in phase 1 or 2," Seo said. "I believe that by using such a collaboration method, we will be able to receive approval for six products and market them before 2030."

By the end of June this year, Celltrion aims to have an mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) platform and an oral bispecific antibody platform, Seo added.

As a result, Seo stressed that Celltrion aims to achieve 60 percent of sales from biosimilars and the rest from original drugs by 2030. 

The returned chairman also hinted at a possible M&A of global biopharmaceutical companies this year.

"We will consider global acquisitions to enhance Celltrion Group's business competitiveness and create synergies," Seo said. "We will strictly select blue chip companies and make quick and accurate decision-making for mergers and acquisitions that can create superior future value."

Seo said the company has been preparing for such an M&A deal since last year by stocking up on surplus cash.

The company will use about 4-5 trillion won ($3-3.8 billion) and execute the M&A in the third quarter of this year, he said.

Meanwhile, Celltrion Group held its 32nd Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on Tuesday and elected Seo as a member of the Board of Directors and Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Celltrion, Celltrion Healthcare, and Celltrion Pharma, the three listed companies within Celltrion Group.