April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] The new chief executive of  Green Cross Cell on March 21 vowed to accelerate the next-generation immuno-cell therapy product development and market expansion to China this year.

Lee Duck-joo, who took over the top job on March 17, has pledged to transform the company into a global cell therapy developer. 

“The company is further expanding research and development of next-generation cell therapy products such as chimeric antigen receptor T cell treatment and immunosuppression-avoidant T cell therapy, which will help it to be reborn as a market leader, leading the development of therapeutic drug market in Korea,” he said.

Chimeric antigen receptor T cell, or CAR-T which has emerged as a powerful targeted immunotherapy, is one of Green Cross Cell’s new growth engines, which it plans to conduct phase 1 clinical trials this year.

Lee said that the company will seek to enter overseas markets, starting with the Asian market.

“We will push to expand in overseas markets starting this year,” he said.

Its parent firm Green Cross has built a cell therapy manufacturing center in Guizhou province, China, to distribute products in the country.

As a part of the expansion plan, Green Cross Cell signed a joint venture agreement with HarbinHubang Tongtang Biotechnology to advance its immune cell therapy drug in January.

Under the deal, the Chinese firm will work on clinical data and drug approval procedures for the Korean counterpart’s anti-cancer treatment Immunecell-L.

“As a next-generation anti-cancer drug with superior therapeutic effects to conventional drugs and few side effects, Green Cross Cell’s immune cell therapy not only kills cancer cells, but also enhances the human immune system,” Lee said.

Sales of Immunecell-LC have been on a steady growth since its launch, from 1.4 billion won (US$1.25 billion) in 2008 to 11.5 billion won in 2016. From April, Green Cross Cell will begin to directly sell the product which its parent company Green Cross has been handling so far.

“In addition to liver cancer, we are conducting clinical trials on various other carcinomas to expand the indications, including brain tumor, pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancer, thereby strengthening our efforts to provide widespread treatment to more patients,” he said.

This year, the company is expected to release five-year survival rate of the drug on patients with liver cancer.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)