News Briefing

toktok newsletter will keep you up-to-date with the latest news on SK and member companies.

 

 


 

As Chairman Chey Tae-won put forth ‘challenging spirit’ as the management keyword for New Year, SK CEOs defined specific goals and embarked on fulfilling them. In his New Year’s greeting addressed to SK People, Chairman Chey Tae-won suggested becoming frontier men (trailblazers) full of challenging spirit to ride over business challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate crisis. In response, SK Inc. Vice Chairman Jang Dong-hyun said in this year’s New Year greeting “We will work with a challenging spirit to be supported by stakeholders and trusted/recognized by the market,” and emphasized, “This year will mark the beginning of our Big Reap as we expedite growth and reap returns on investments in four key business domains.” SK innovation Vice Chairman Kim Jun also stated in his New Year’s greeting, “We still have outstanding concerns and challenges in connection with sustainable growth,” and proposed, “Let’s build up our corporate valuation and deliver full-blown outcomes with a genuine green business strategy.” SK hynix Vice Chairman Park Jung-ho said, “The business landscape in the decade to come will be different beyond imagination from what we knew in the past,” and gave encouraging words, “Now is the time for us to be pathfinders blazing uncharted trails, with desire to be No. 1.” SK E&S Vice Chairman Yu Jeong-joon stated, “It is not easy to usher in the era of future energy, but I expect SK E&S to boldly go forward on the path that we must take, with a daring and indomitable challenging spirit.” Other SK CEOs also revealed in their New Year’s greetings plans to foster a challenging spirit and write global stories and financial stories that can enable them to achieve a Big Reap this year.

 

 

 

 

 

SK Group joined the world’s biggest ICT and gadget show, CES 2022 (CES hereinafter), held in Las Vegas, USA on the 5th (local time). SK Group defined CES 2022 as the venue where the group would announce its pledge to reduce global carbon emission and the beginning of its journey forward. To that end, six SK member companies; SK Inc., SK innovation, SK E&S, SK hynix, SK telecom, and SK ecoplant featured exhibitions under the theme of Donghaeng (SK, Your companion on the journey toward Net-Zero future). Chairman Chey Tae-won announced in the CEO seminar held in last October and the Trans-pacific Dialogue held in USA in last December that, “SK Group will contribute to reducing 200 million tons of carbon, which accounts for 1% of the global carbon emissions reduction target by 2030 (21 billion tons).” As the theme of the exhibitions revolved around the ‘journey’ and donghaeng (companion or buddy in English) toward the fulfillment of the Net-Zero pledge, six SK member companies showcased their Net-Zero efforts to reduce carbon emissions together with a variety of partners in this year’s tech show. SK Group’s exhibition hall, the Green Forest Pavilion was divided into four zones; Green Avenue, Tree of Life, Walk to Tomorrow, and Green Playground, all of which were configured to allow visitors to experience SK Group’s Net-Zero efforts in a seamless journey. True to the thrust of the exhibitions, Donghaeng visitors were also invited to join activity programs where they could contribute in person to fulfilling the Net-Zero mission goal.

 

 

 

 

 

SK Inc., the strategic investment holding company of SK Group, has accelerated its jump to become a leading cell and gene therapy (CGT) contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for the pharmaceutical industry. SK Inc. announced on January 9th that it has invested $350 million in the Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM), a Pennsylvania-based CGT CDMO, to become the second-largest shareholder. With this investment, SK Inc. not only has secured a strong foothold in the U.S. but has gotten closer to its goal to become a leading CDMO that produces both chemical APIs and biologic drugs. CBM is the largest and most comprehensive single site cell and gene therapy CDMO servicing pre-clinical to commercial phase therapies, following a molecule from idea to launch and providing a full spectrum of services all in one location. CBM provides pre-clinical development through commercial manufacturing services, including process development, the design and manufacture of plasmid DNA, viral vector manufacturing, cell banking, cell processing, testing and analytics, and fill/finish. CBM’s competitive strength lies in its unparalleled CGT technology, highly skilled management and R&D staff, plans for the world’s largest manufacturing capability and its location, which is optimal to pursue the CGT business. CBM is located in the Greater Philadelphia region, the core of the “Cellicon Valley,” which is the only biopharma cluster in the U.S. specializing in CGT. With over 100 universities and hospitals, 1,700 pharma companies and 70,000 experts, the “Cellicon Valley” is the most optimal location to pursue the CGT business in terms of sourcing CDMO-related technology, clients and talents. CBM has an ambitious plan to construct a 700,000 square feet GMP-grade CGT facility by 2025, which will be the world’s largest of its kind. It also has plans to hire over 2,000 new employees relating to the facility during the next four years.

 

*CDMO : Contract Development & Manufacturing Organization

 

 

 

 

 

SK pharmteco, SK Inc.’s CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organization) affiliate, announced today its “Vision 2025” growth strategy at the 40th J.P Morgan HealthCare Conference. SK pharmteco took part in the Private Track for non-public companies at its first J.P Morgan HealthCare Conference. Private Track is a session that global investors closely watch as many participants have gone public in the same year or the year following the conference. SK pharmteco is the only Korean company to be invited to this year’s Private Track and has been recognized for its potential investment value in the global market. SK Inc. is planning for a pre-IPO this year, working towards a more specific plan to go public. Based on the steadily growing small molecule APIs business, SK pharmteco plans to establish a cycle of growth that fosters its new growth driver, cell and gene therapy business, rapidly. Aslam Malik, CEO of SK pharmteco, led the presentation, sharing in detail the company’s past performances and its vision to rise to become a top 5 global CDMO. “In 2021, SK pharmteco’s forecasted sales reached an all-time high of $740 million (KRW 883 billion), a whopping 7.5 times growth from 2017 when we began our global expansion process,” said Malik. “With the sustained growth of the small molecule APIs, SK pharmteco is aiming to become a CDMO with annual sales of $2 billion (KRW 2.5 trillion) by 2025, leveraging the cell and gene therapy business as the new growth engine.” Malik emphasized SK pharmteco’s combined U.S.-Europe-Asia manufacturing capacity, a strong track record of regulatory compliance, and outstanding pipeline based on long-term contracts as its differentiating factors that earned the trust of global pharmaceutical manufacturers. All SK pharmteco manufacturing plants in the U.S., Europe and Asia comply with FDA and EMA standards and can supply high-quality drugs to major regions of the world. With consistent investment, SK pharmteco plans to expand its global manufacturing capacity by 50% from the current 1,000㎥ by 2025.

 

 

 

 

 

SK biopharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. and its U.S. subsidiary SK life science, Inc., innovative global pharmaceutical companies focused on developing treatments for central nervous system (CNS) disorders, submitted a clinical study protocol to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a Phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of carisbamate for the treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS). Carisbamate has received orphan drug designation from the FDA for the potential treatment of LGS. The Phase 3, global, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial will evaluate the efficacy of two doses of carisbamate in more than 250 patients aged 4-55. “The initiation of the Phase 3 trial evaluating carisbamate in Lennox-Gastaut syndrome marks a new chapter for SK life science in developing therapies to treat central nervous system disorders in adult and pediatric patients,” said Marc Kamin, MD, chief medical officer at SK life science. “We are committed to applying our expertise in epilepsy to develop new therapy options for LGS, a condition with high unmet medical need.”