The 2025 BIO USA event held at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center is crowded with attendees. Reporter Lee Jung-min
Major Korean pharmaceutical and biotech companies will head to “BIO USA 2026,” the world’s largest bio industry event, to be held in San Diego, United States, late this month. Each company plans to seek global commercialization opportunities, including expanding contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) orders and licensing out new drug candidates.
According to industry sources Thursday, BIO USA is the world’s largest pharmaceutical and bio industry event, organized by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. Each year, pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, and investment institutions from around the world gather to discuss technology transfers, joint research, and production cooperation. This year’s event will be held in San Diego from the 22nd to the 25th of this month, with more than 20,000 industry participants from over 70 countries expected to attend.
Korean CDMO companies will use the event to find global business partners and explore cooperation opportunities. Samsung Biologics (207940.KS) will operate a standalone booth for the 14th consecutive year since its founding in 2011, working to expand CDMO orders. This year, the company plans to put forward its “CRDMO” business model, which encompasses contract research (CRO), contract development (CDO), and contract manufacturing (CMO). In particular, it plans to focus on securing global clients based on the Rockville, U.S. production facility it acquired last year and its production base in Songdo, Incheon. Lotte Biologics will also unveil the production processes and key facilities of Plant 1 at its Songdo Bio Campus, which is scheduled for completion in August this year. The company plans to emphasize its global CDMO competitiveness based on a “dual site” operating system that connects its plant in Syracuse, U.S., with the Songdo Bio Campus. Dong-A Socio Group will operate a joint booth with its three affiliates Dong-A ST, ST Pharm, and BTGEN. Through this, it plans to explore new order opportunities for ST Pharm, which operates a ribonucleic acid (RNA) therapeutics CDMO business, and BTGEN, an antibody and protein CDMO company.
Celltrion (068270.KS) and SK Biopharmaceuticals (326030.KS) will highlight their AI-based business capabilities at the event. Celltrion will introduce its AI technologies for new drug development and clinical applications through a standalone booth. Alongside this, it will showcase the competitiveness of major biosimilar products such as Vegzelma, Yuflyma, and Steqeyma. Celltrion has recently been accelerating the adoption of AI across all areas, from new drug development to manufacturing and administrative work. SK Biopharmaceuticals will set up a booth in the “Digital Health and AI Zone” at the venue and unveil its AI-based new drug development strategy and a mid- to long-term growth vision based on it. Following the establishment of an open innovation base in New Jersey, U.S., last month, the company plans to hold business meetings to expand global cooperation. The aim is to secure the next-generation growth engine to succeed its epilepsy drug “Cenobamate.”
New drug developers will seek commercialization opportunities such as joint development and technology exports. Oscotec will explore the possibility of global cooperation centered on its drug-resistant cancer treatment and kidney fibrosis treatment candidates. Onconic Therapeutics will unveil the development results of “Nesuparib,” an anticancer drug candidate in Phase 2 clinical trials, and begin commercialization discussions. Nesuparib is in clinical development for pancreatic cancer, endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer, and gastric cancer. AriBio will also showcase its Alzheimer’s treatment development capabilities along with the vaccine and immune platform technology of its affiliate AriBio Lab. The company plans to focus on developing follow-up pipelines to succeed “AR1001,” an oral dementia treatment whose global rights it recently licensed out to China’s Fosun Pharma.