Yoo Byung-jae, CEO of Novartis Korea, explains the plan to build a domestic ecosystem for radioactive ligand treatment (RLT). [Korea Novartis] 사진 확대 Yoo Byung-jae, CEO of Novartis Korea, explains the plan to build a domestic ecosystem for radioactive ligand treatment (RLT). [Korea Novartis]

Interview with Novartis Korea CEO Yoo Byung-jae
Agreement with the Ministry of Health and Welfare on Investment of 140 Billion Won in Korea
Outstanding Medical Staff, Hospitals, and Clinical Infrastructure
The headquarters of the United States judges that the potential and growth potential are high.
Plans to establish manufacturing facilities and cold chains and collaborate with domestic companies

“Radioactive therapy (RLT) is like a ‘comprehensive art’ that needs to be tightly intertwined from basic science to hospitals and medical staff to radioactive material production, logistics and regulation. I think South Korea already has a solid foundation.”

Yoo Byung-jae, CEO of Novartis Korea, recently met with Mail Business and explained the meaning of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed with the Ministry of Health and Welfare to build an RLT ecosystem. Novartis plans to invest about 140 billion won to build RLT manufacturing facilities and advanced cold chain logistics networks in Korea, and expand the number of RLT-administered hospitals to 30 from the current 10. It will also contribute to fostering professional research personnel.

RLT has begun to attract attention as a next-generation anticancer platform as Novartis’ metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer treatment “Fluvicto” grew into a blockbuster with sales of about $2 billion (2.7 trillion won) last year. Fluvicto and neuroendocrine tumor treatment “Rutatera” are also approved in Korea. Currently, domestic supplies are produced in Europe, and when domestic production facilities are established, the plan is to produce high-demand Pluvico first.

CEO Yoo asked to pay attention to the expansion of access to treatment for Korean patients. This is because it is the reason to expand not only manufacturing facilities but also logistics networks and administration hospitals together in Korea. He said, “We considered areas that could provide new treatment options to patients who did not receive sufficient benefits from existing chemotherapy and increase the competitiveness of healthcare in Korea, and RLT was the point where the two met.”

“The biggest meaning of domestic production is that patients can be treated when they need it and medical staff can accumulate RLT clinical experience more smoothly,” he said. “If clinical trials for new carcinomas are conducted faster in Korea, patients can also have wider opportunities to access innovative treatments early.”

The process was not smooth until Korea was selected as an investment hub for RLT. In Korea, the government had to explain to the government the need to foster RLT among various next-generation treatment technologies such as antibody drug conjugates (ADC) and gene therapy drugs. Novartis headquarters needed a process of persuading why South Korea should be put on a strategic priority.

“Korea has medical staff and hospital infrastructure that have accumulated considerable RLT treatment experience through prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumor treatment,” CEO Yoo said. “We emphasized the environment to actively accept these strengths and new innovative technologies to the headquarters, and persuaded that Korea has sufficient capacity and potential to grow RLT.”

Yoo Byung-jae, CEO of Novartis Korea, explains the plan to build a domestic ecosystem for radioactive ligand treatment (RLT). [Korea Novartis] 사진 확대 Yoo Byung-jae, CEO of Novartis Korea, explains the plan to build a domestic ecosystem for radioactive ligand treatment (RLT). [Korea Novartis]

However, as global pharmaceutical companies such as Roche and Eli Lilly have recently come up with large-scale domestic investment plans, Novartis’ investment of 140 billion won is relatively small. CEO Yoo stressed that as each company has different criteria for calculating the size of the investment, attention should be paid to the scalability of the RLT ecosystem to be built through this investment.

“The amount of investment disclosed by Novartis is directly related to RLT, such as manpower, education, and center expansion, and the scale may vary if clinical research, startup cooperation, and manpower investment are included,” he said. “As it is important for the bio industry to create a foundation for platforms and talents to gather rather than initial investment, RLT should also look at future scalability and ripple effects rather than investment size.”

It also left open the possibility of cooperation with domestic companies. Domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies such as SK Biopharmaceuticals are also selecting RLT as a next-generation growth engine and developing related treatments and securing technologies.

CEO Yoo said, “RLT is a platform that combines several elements rather than a simple competitive structure, so there are various areas for cooperation,” adding, “It will be possible to cooperate in various ways, such as strengthening the clinical capacity of hospitals or jointly researching and developing specific radioactive isotopes.”

“Domestic companies can be both competitors and cooperative partners,” he said. “Now is a good time to grow the RLT ecosystem together.”

There are also tasks that need to be solved for the RLT ecosystem to settle in Korea. The biggest is the expansion of patient access through health insurance benefits.

“We need to find a balance between the public value that all patients should have the opportunity to protect life and quality of life and the industrial value that new innovations should continue,” he said. “It is important to create a social consensus on how to expand access to innovative treatments with limited resources.”