Chief executive officer and president John Rim of Samsung Biologics and chief executive officer and president Lee Dong-hoon of SK Biopharmaceuticals won renewed terms. Both heads succeeded in global commercialization and drove earnings growth.
According to each company on the 29th, the renewed terms for President John Rim and President Lee Dong-hoon were recently finalized. Starting in March next year, John Rim will officially begin a third term and Lee Dong-hoon a second term. Both leaders are viewed as successfully steering Samsung and SK groups' bio businesses.
◇ President John Rim achieves record annual orders each year
John Rim joined Samsung Biologics in 2018 as executive vice president and first took office as chief executive in Dec. 2020, advancing Samsung's trademark "super-gap" strategy and boosting contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) order-taking capabilities.
As a result, the company set record results every year and rose to the top tier of global CDMO corporations. Samsung Biologics posted sales of 4.5473 trillion won last year, becoming the first in Korea's pharmaceutical and biotech industry to surpass 4 trillion won in annual revenue.
Samsung Biologics' annual order value increased from 1.1602 trillion won at the end of 2021 during John Rim's tenure to 6.8190 trillion won as of the end of December this year. In 2018, Samsung Biologics had just three clients among the world's top 20 large pharmaceutical companies, but it now has 17.
This year, through a spin-off with Samsung Bioepis, the company clarified its business structure and addressed conflict-of-interest concerns, strengthening both customer trust and order competitiveness.
◇ President Lee Dong-hoon spearheads U.S. commercialization of an epilepsy drug
SK Biopharmaceuticals is the only pharmaceutical and biotech company in Korea to succeed in commercialization in the United States with a self-developed new drug (Xcopri). Lee Dong-hoon served as head of Samjong KPMG Investment Advisory, executive vice president and chief executive of Dong-A Socio Holdings, and took office as chief executive of SK Biopharmaceuticals in Jan. 2023.
Lee led U.S. sales and lifted Xcopri's U.S. market share. On the back of strong U.S. sales of Xcopri, SK Biopharmaceuticals' revenue last year surged 54.3% year over year to 547.6 billion won. Operating profit also reached 96.3 billion won, turning its first annual profit. Xcopri surpassed $100 million in quarterly sales for the first time in the second quarter. Its market share is also likely to rank No. 1 in the first quarter of next year.
Lee also drew industry attention by moving quickly with scenario-based response strategies to global variables. Early this year, to address tariff uncertainty stemming from the United States, SK Biopharmaceuticals reviewed a pharmaceutical manufacturing base in Puerto Rico.
Following the United States, SK Biopharmaceuticals is eyeing expansion into global markets. Early this month, it received product approval for Cenobamate (Chinese product name Yifului) from China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).