On the 22nd local time at the San Diego Convention Center in California. On the opening day of BioUSA, global big pharma and investors are flocking to the booths of Korean bio corporations, keeping meetings nonstop.
The scale of advance meetings by major corporations is already in the hundreds. Based on reservations, Samsung Biologics about 90, Celltrion about 120, Lotte Biologics about 50, SK Biopharmaceuticals about 200, and Alteogen about 30 have been confirmed.
However, on the ground, the assessment is that it is "only a first-day figure." The total tends to rise as additional meetings are added toward the latter half of the event. BioUSA sees ongoing informal meetings through booth visits, networking sessions, and roundtables in addition to reserved appointments. Because of this, final tallies typically far exceed the advance figures.
A change mentioned even more often than the numbers is the depth of the discussions. An industry official said, "It's not just that the number of meetings has increased; the topics on the table have changed." The scope of talks is expanding beyond contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) to include platform technologies, Antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC), and RNA-based new drugs, making the negotiation stages more concrete.
Some corporations also hinted at expectations for concrete business outcomes. Chief Business Officer Vivek Senoy said, "We expect to conclude two technology transfer deals within the year," adding, "We should be able to share the news soon."
Meanwhile, Shin Yoo-yeol, head of Lotte Biologics, who had attended BioUSA every year, did not make an appearance at this event. The company said it was due to another business trip. In the industry, some noted this is unusual given that securing large orders is critical ahead of the completion of the Songdo plant.