Hanmi Pharm President & CEO Lee Gwan-sun (Photo:Hanmi Pharm)

Hanmi Pharm was at the center of the Korea pharmaceutical and bio industry last year. Starting with a license-out agreement with the global pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly in March, Hanmi Pharm signed deals with Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi-Aventis, and Janssen in succession. 

The combined value of the deals amounts to a whopping 7.5 trillion won. The figure represents almost half of the 18 trillion won all Korean pharmaceutical companies took in last year. The combined down payments stand at 730 billion won, equivalent to almost 760 billion won the company posted in sales in 2014. 

Hanmi Pharm’s success has broad implications for the whole Korean pharmaceutical sector. It’s a sign that there is great potential for the Korean pharmaceutical and bio industry to have a head start as a growth engine for the nation. 

“It is owed to our company’s setting aside a 20 percent portion of sales for R&D investments,” said Hanmi Pharm President & CEO Lee Gwan-sun. “I’m proud of having instilled a sense of confidence into the industrial community that Korean pharmaceutical companies can walk the walk in the global stage.”  Entering this year, President Lee is keeping a tight business schedule. Hanmi Pharm now has to take the seven new candidate drugs whose license-out was signed during last year to the final stage of commercialization. The company is working on R&D in organic cooperation with its business partners. 

“There is a saying that a rising tide lifts all boats. I hope this will make sure that the pharmaceutical industry may emerge as a future growth engine,” Lee said. 

President Lee started his career as a researcher of Hanmi Pharm Research Institute in 1984. He has been climbing the corporate ladder to rise to president & CEO. 

President Lee himself has been directly or indirectly engaged in research of the seven new candidate drugs. He considers the pharmaceutical industry as the “future of Korea,” as Switzerland, a nation with a small population, has risen to become a global pharmaceutical powerhouse. Despite the small scale and lack of technology, he said he believes that Korean pharmaceutical companies could achieve their goals if they max out their strengths. Ten years ago, Hanmi Pharm managed to launch full-fledged technology development projects thanks to the full support of Hanmi Pharm Chairman Yim Sung-ki, who has been on the same page as President Lee’s.

Starting in the 1990s, Hanmi Pharm made diverse attempts in the bio drug sector. The company began to make full-fledged investments based on the experiences and data the company had accumulated. Starting 2,000, Hanmi Pharm lavished about 900 billion won in R&D outlays annually. The company went through a number of trials and errors. Hanmi Pharm’s project to develop “LAPS-GCSF (HM10460A),” a new bio drug for the treatment of neutropenia, ended up in failure in consideration of marketability and profitability. The company gave up the development of a new drug for hepatitis C that completed a second clinical trial since Gilead succeeded in developing a new drug that can be taken more easily than Hanmi Pharm. 

“Recognizing failures is a driving force behind the development of new drugs. Accepting all processes and parlaying them into other R&D efforts lie in Hanmi Pharm’s R&D culture,” he said. 

President Lee stressed the fact that the pharmaceutical industry should collaborate with the government to become a global pharmaceutical powerhouse. The global pharmaceutical industry is bigger than the global semiconductor market, and the successful development of just one new drug could have the same economic footprint of exporting hundreds of thousands of automobiles. He regrets the current price policy reality of not guaranteeing proper prices compared to value, which has damped pharmaceutical companies’ aggressive development of new drugs.

About Hanmi Pharm

Hanmi Pharm, established in 1973, has a motto “to develop better drugs for precious lives” and pledges to advance to the global market as a representative of the Korean pharmaceutical industry by focusing on R&D. Hanmi Pharm achieved its first and as-yet greatest export performance in the 1990’s based on "innovation” and “creativity,” and became a pioneer of developing incremetally modified drug (IMD), which was recognized domestically and internationally in the 2000s.

Hanmi is also expected to become the first Korean company to develop a new global drug as clinical trials are conducted in the US and, Europe to develop diabetes and anti-cancer drugs. Along with this, Hanmi has received GMP certifications from food and drugs authorities of developed countries and also strives to promote public health by exporting finished products to global pharmaceutical companies based upon differentiated quality management.

“In order for our nation to become a leader in the pharmaceutical industry, Hanmi strives to lead continuous improvement through ongoing research and development and innovative solutions for healthcare,” the company says. “Hanmi will make every endeavor to become a pioneer in the field and elevate South Korea to “the Switzerland of Asia” in the pharmaceutical industry.”