[THE INVESTOR] Korean drug makers and biotech firms are set to present their latest technological developments at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference on Jan. 10 in San Francisco, California.

In Korea, the health industry’s major event is best known for being the venue where Hanmi Pharmaceutical bagged a blockbuster license-out deal with Sanofi in 2015.

Here are the topics that Samsung BioLogics, Celltrion and Seegene will cover during their sessions to attract potential investors and customers. 

Samsung BioLogics

The contract drug manufacturer is pushing itself to add small biotech companies to its customer list by offering development support services to them.

CEO Kim Tae-han will talk about Samsung BioLogics’ capability to provide not only commercial scale manufacturing but also smaller-scale manufacturing and process development for a broader range of biopharma companies.

He will also boast the company’s third biomanufacturing plant which was completed last month in Songdo, Incheon, which makes the CDMO to offer customers a total of 360,000 liters of commercial bioreactor capacity. 

Celltrion

Celltrion Vice President Lee Sang-joon, who leads clinical trials for the firm, will deliver the clinical development and regulatory milestone of its biosimilar products during the session.

The fast-growing market share of Celltrion’s first biosimilar Remsima in Europe, an imminent EU regulatory approval of breast cancer therapy Herzuma as well as Truxima, which was filed for approval in the US last year, will be addressed, according to a Celltrion official.

Lee will pitch to investors about the strong partnerships that Celltrion Healthcare, Celltrion’s marketing arm, has built with big drug makers, including Pfizer, to increase global market penetration of its copy versions of blockbuster treatments.

The latest clinical development of its subcutaneous version of Remsima will be presented at the event. Celltrion plans to release the new version in 2019. 

Seegene

Seegene CEO Chun Jong-yoon will reveal a newly created artificial intelligence based system which enables the company to develop molecular diagnostics assays in four days.

The AI-based automated development system is expected to lower the high diagnostics costs and help the company to move closer to its goal of developing 100 multiplex molecular diagnostics assays by 2018.

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