“After Cenobamate, our epilepsy treatment, was commercialized, one of the answers we reached after agonizing over how to develop another new drug was artificial intelligence (AI). We announced our partnership with China’s Insilico Medicine (Insilico), but beyond that, we want to make various attempts that are not confined to existing frameworks, such as graphics processing unit (GPU) cooperation with Nvidia,” said Lee Dong-hoon, CEO of SK Biopharmaceuticals.
“There will be concrete discussions on how AI technology can move beyond merely promoting possibilities and be deployed at actual industry sites to raise clinical success rates and secure economic viability,” said Lee Seung-gyu, vice chairman of the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization.
The biggest topic at “BIO International Convention (BIO USA) 2026,” the world’s largest biotech exhibition that opened Monday at the San Diego Convention Center in the United States, was once again AI. For the first time this year, the organizers set up a separate “Digital Health and AI Zone” at the venue. Among Korean companies, SK Biopharmaceuticals, Lotte Biologics, Celltrion, Dong-A ST, and ST Pharm set up exhibition booths in this zone to showcase their AI capabilities. The enthusiasm for AI-based new drug development, confirmed earlier this year at the “J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPMHC),” appears to be carrying over to BIO USA.
Ahead of the opening, SK Biopharmaceuticals announced a joint research agreement with AI drug development company Insilico worth up to 4 trillion won for AI-based new drug development. The goal is to discover innovative new drug candidates for central nervous system (CNS) neuroimmune diseases, where unmet medical needs are high. Meeting with reporters at the BIO USA venue, CEO Lee said, “We need to develop our next new drug with the ample cash generated from Cenobamate, but the conventional approach takes 10 years.” He added, “To shorten this, we prepared for a partnership from early this year and concluded that Insilico was the most suitable.”
CEO Lee left open the possibility of cooperation with group affiliates SK hynix and Nvidia. The recent meeting between SK Group Chairman Tae-won Choi and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang drew attention as Choi’s eldest daughter, Choi Yoon-jung, head of strategy at SK Biopharmaceuticals, accompanied him. “When I met Insilico’s president, I mentioned SK hynix’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, and the fact that SK Biopharmaceuticals can receive help from group affiliates is also a competitive edge,” he said. “We are considering various matters related to GPU utilization, and we are keeping open various possibilities that break the boundaries of thinking, such as cooperation with Nvidia.”
Joint research and technical cooperation among Korean AI drug development company Galux, AstraZeneca, and immune disease drug developer Ezcurix was also highlighted. Galux is regarded as a world-class company in AI-based “de novo” antibody design. De novo antibody design is a highly difficult technology that requires designing entirely new amino acid sequences and structures to implement functions. Successful cases worldwide can be counted on one hand. The Korea Health Industry Development Institute and AstraZeneca supported Galux’s overseas expansion as part of an open innovation project.
The institute also held the “Nova Global Connect Seminar,” a venue for discussing technical cooperation between AstraZeneca and Korean biotechs, at the BIO USA site that day. The Nova project is a cooperation channel established by the institute and AstraZeneca Korea to connect the innovative technologies and assets of Korean biotechs to AstraZeneca’s global headquarters so they can receive evaluation and feedback. At the event, 13 Korean pharmaceutical and bio companies in the fields of immunology, oncology, and kidney and metabolic diseases, including Samjin Pharmaceutical and IntoCell, held one-on-one meetings with AstraZeneca to discuss multifaceted technical cooperation.
At this BIO USA, a record-high number of about 350 Korean companies gathered to introduce their new drug development status and services. This year, an official session on the theme of the Korean bio industry was also established for the first time. At Samsung Biologics’ booth, which spans 140 square meters (about 42 pyeong), Samsung Biologics Vice President James Choi said, “About 100 business meetings have been confirmed,” adding, “American companies account for the largest share.” A Celltrion official said, “Including pre-arranged ones, there will be 150 meetings.”