Celltrion(068270) said on the 8th that it will work with Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster (KBIC), Japan's largest bio cluster, to foster promising bio startups.
The two sides will hold an in-person briefing session that day at the headquarters of Life Science Network Japan (LINK-J), Tokyo's industry-academia-government council, and will fully launch the "2026 KBIC-Celltrion global scale-up program."
This project is an open innovation program for Korea-Japan public-private cooperation that Celltrion is jointly planning and operating with a Japanese bio cluster for the first time among domestic corporations. The goal is to support everything from upgrading the technology of promising startups to global commercialization.
Participant corporations will be recruited from this month through December. After document and presentation reviews, two final corporations will be selected in March next year.
The recruitment targets are bio startups with innovative technologies that can be linked to Celltrion's technology needs. Antibodies, peptides, small-molecule compounds, and anti-aging are the main recruitment fields. The selected corporations will participate throughout 2027 in a customized incubation program to upgrade their technological and business capabilities.
Celltrion will provide mentoring and technical advice on the entire process, from pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) to approval, production, and global commercialization. It will also leverage networks with government and local governments, industry-academia cooperation institutions, and venture capital (VC). The company plans to pursue practical cooperation by seeking joint research opportunities with the selected corporations, including discovering next-generation pipelines.
KBIC will support tailored accelerating for each startup through its operating body, Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation at Kobe (FBRI). It will provide consulting by matching experts in fields such as R&D, patents and intellectual property rights, fundraising, and business strategy to each corporation.
The two sides will also create opportunities to attract investment through one-on-one meetings with domestic investment institutions and demo days. Through this, they plan to support the commercialization of promising technologies and entry into global markets.
Celltrion expects to create synergy by combining Japan's basic research capabilities and bio infrastructure with its own global commercialization experience. The policy is to make building an ecosystem that supports startups' independent growth, beyond simple investment or technology acquisition, the core of its open innovation strategy.
This cooperation was prepared based on open innovation activities that Celltrion has continued in Japan since 2023. Celltrion has participated from the planning stage in KBIC's Kansai Life Science Accelerator Program (KLSAP), which supports the global expansion of bio startups in Japan's Kansai region. It has also expanded its cooperation base with Japan's bio ecosystem by setting up a Kobe hub office and networking with LINK-J and the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO).
A Celltrion official said, "This program will be a cooperation model that supports the growth of promising bio startups by combining the strengths of Korea and Japan," adding, "We will continue to actively build an open innovation ecosystem so that new corporations with innovative technologies can leap into global markets."