CJ CheilJedang officially launched a red bio subsidiary, CJ Bio Science, in relation to bio businesses in the medical and pharmaceutical fields. The commencement of the new company is a sign that the group has officially set out to strengthen its competitiveness in the Wellness sector, the group’s future growth engine, aiming at developing the world’s top new drugs based on microbiome.
CJ Bio Science held a launch ceremony on Jan 4, 2022 at CJ HumanVille in Jung-gu, Seoul attended by CJ CheilJedang CEO Eun Seok Choi, CJ Bio Science CEO Jong Sik Cheon, and other key executives.
The newly-minted CEO of CJ Bio Science, Jong Sik Cheon, said, “Today will be remembered as a milestone in the treatment and prevention of incurable diseases, one that will mark the great beginning that will contribute to not only Korea, but also the world. CJ Bio Science will catapult itself into being the world’s No. 1 microbiome company by acquiring 10 pipelines and achieving two technological exports by 2025.”
CJ CheilJedang CEO Eun Seok Choi stressed in the congratulatory remarks that, “The CJ Group has just begun to operate its future growth engine in earnest in pursuit of the mid-term vision, Wellness. I’d like to ask CJ Bio Science to secure capabilities that far outpace the competition early on and lay the foundation for innovative growth.”
At the ceremony, CJ Bio Science presented the Three Strategies for Innovation Growth to achieve the vision of becoming the World’s No. 1 Microbiome Company.
First of all, CJ Bio Science will secure R&D capacity that far outperforms the competition. The company will build a bio-digital platform by expanding cohorts and securing global human microbiome big data.
It will also accelerate the development of new drugs based on the Bio-Digital Platform. To that end, it plans to advance the microbiome drug candidate material platform to cut down the time needed for discovery and to boost the clinical success rates.
In addition, CJ Bio Science will focus on the global expansion of new businesses. It will include next generation sequencing (NGS), genome diagnosis, contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), and personalized health functional foods in their existing list of business areas.
CJ Bio Science CEO, Jong Sik Cheon, said “More specifically, CJ Bio Science will have our pipelines for new drugs that treat patients with immuno-oncology and autoimmune diseases enter the clinical trial (phase 1) with the US FDA, and conduct joint research with big pharmas worldwide for technology exports. The microbiome-based bio platform technology will have a significant impact on the overall medical and healthcare sector, seeing it become a new global blockbuster drug similar to immuno-oncology drugs and mRNA vaccines.”
The launch of CJ Bio Science is not merely a rebranding of the company but is instead intended to convey the strong determination to transform into a company specialized in red bio. The new company plans to merge CJ CheilJedang’s best-in-class technology in microorganisms, strains, and fermentation technology with precision analysis and discovery capabilities, and big data on microbiome to maximize the synergy. Cheon added, “I’m confident that the combination of the capabilities of the two companies will not just be a simple joining of forces but end up creating explosive synergy.
The future looks bright in the Korean and the global market. There has been a series of studies showing that microbiome is related to improving not only digestive disorders, obesity, diabetes, and cancer, but also depression and Alzheimer’s. According to the consulting firm, Frost & Sullivan, the size of the global microbiome market is expected to grow from USD 80 billion in 2019 to about USD 110 billion in 2023. The Korean government has also recently established the national microbiome innovation strategy and decided to invest KRW 1 trillion over the next decade.
CJ Bio Science is a company that was established by merging a company specialized in microbiome, Cheon Lab, which CJ acquired in October 2021, and CJ’s existing red bio resources.
Jong Sik Cheon, the founder of Cheon Lab, resigned from Seoul University where he worked as a professor for more than twenty years before he was appointed the CEO of CJ Bio Science. It was a decision made to concentrate solely on company management, expressing his strong determination to improve the business competitiveness.
※Reference: What is microbiome?
Microbiome is a combination of the words microbe and biome, and refers to the trillions of microorganisms and their genes in human body.
In general, an adult person weighing 70kg is known to have approximately 39 trillion microbial cells and there are increasing number of cases where microbiome that have been found to be helpful for improving health are used in various areas, such as medicine and health functional foods. For example, a healthy gut microbiome facilitates digestion, adjusts cholesterol and blood sugar levels, and helps with the production of neurotransmitters in the brain.
New drugs made based on microbiome are still in the initial stage in the market. Seres, a US pharmaceutical company seen to have the most advanced technology in the field, is currently in phase 3 of the US FDA clinical trials. For these reasons, the microbiome market is considered as having great growth potential.
