Cho Uk-je, Yuhan CEO (president), said, "We are proceeding without a hitch on developing the pipeline (new drug candidates) to launch a second Leclaza," adding, "marking the 100th anniversary of our founding, we will strengthen global competitiveness."
Cho made the remarks at the annual general meeting of shareholders held on the morning of the 20th at Yuhan headquarters in Dongjak District, Seoul. Cho said, "The new lung cancer drug Leclaza is entering the global commercialization phase, and a full-fledged increase in usage is expected starting this year."
Leclaza became the first domestically developed anticancer drug to win U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 2024. It is used in combination therapy with the U.S. drugmaker Johnson & Johnson (J&J)'s anticancer drug Rybrevant. Boosted by Leclaza and others, Yuhan posted 2.1866 trillion won in consolidation revenue and 104.4 billion won in operating profit last year. Those were up 6% and 90%, respectively, from a year earlier.
Yuhan set a goal to reinvest earnings into research and development (R&D) to roll out its next blockbuster product. It is now developing the allergy treatment candidate Lesigercept and the immuno-oncology candidate YH32367, among others.
Cho said, "If the past 100 years were a time of upholding the convictions of the late founder, Dr. Yu Il-han, this year is a key moment to establish a direction for a better next 100 years," adding, "we will pursue mid- to long-term growth opportunities through global partnerships, open innovation, and strategic research and development."
Yu Il-ling, a director of the Yuhan Foundation and granddaughter of Dr. Yu Il-han, also returned from the United States to attend the shareholders meeting that day. Meeting with a reporter, Yu said, "Marking the 100th anniversary of the founding, I hope this year sees my grandfather's passion and innovation revived," adding, "I hope it becomes a good corporation." Earlier, when Dr. Yu Il-han died in 1971, he did not pass management control to his family and left $10,000 to his granddaughter.
The National Pension Service, which holds 7.73% equity in Yuhan, voted in favor of all agenda items at the shareholders meeting that day. Yuhan plans to allocate 600 won per common share and 610 won per preferred share to shareholders soon. That is up 20% from a year earlier. Agenda items to appoint Shin Ui-cheol, a professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, and Oh In-seo, a managing partner at DR & AJU LLC, as outside directors also passed.
Meanwhile, after the meeting ended, some shareholders said, "It was a perfunctory shareholders meeting," and asked, "Why didn't you explain the technology being returned last year?" Earlier, Yuhan had licensed out the metabolic dysfunction–associated steatohepatitis (MASH) candidate YH25724 to C. H. Boehringer Sohn AG & Co. KG, but it was returned last year. Yuhan is preparing to develop the candidate in-house.