GC녹십자랩셀-GC녹십자셀 Merger... "Accelerating Cell Therapy Business"

Merger Completion by November
New Name Changed to 'GC Cell'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jihee Kim] GC LabCell and GC Cell, bio companies affiliated with GC Pharma, are merging.

GC LabCell and GC Cell announced on the 16th that they each held board meetings and resolved to merge. They plan to complete the merger by November this year after regulatory corporate merger reviews and shareholder meetings of both companies. The merger ratio is 1 to 0.4, with 0.4 new shares of GC LabCell allocated for each share of GC Cell. The surviving entity after the merger will be GC LabCell, and the company name will be changed to 'GC Cell (JiC Cell)' as part of this integration.

The company explained that this merger is a decision to combine two companies with different strengths in the common field of cell therapy to enhance global competitiveness. GC LabCell has global competitiveness in the NK cell therapy field, while GC Cell holds the world’s largest cell therapy production title through its anticancer drug 'ImmunCell LC.'

A company official said, "This is a strategy to increase corporate value by combining similar companies," adding, "It is beyond a merger between complementary affiliates to create synergy effects."

Both companies expect that upon successful merger, the research and development (R&D) portfolio will effectively become a complete form in the cell therapy domain. They have more than 20 globally recognized anticancer cell therapy pipelines such as CAR-NK and CAR-T, and will secure about 40 patents. The R&D workforce will reach 120 people. The integrated company intends to accelerate collaboration with major pharmaceutical companies and technology exports through its local U.S. affiliates Artiva and Novacel.

Additionally, they will expand their contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) business for biopharmaceuticals. This is because GC Cell, which has the largest cell therapy production facility in Korea, will combine its manufacturing capabilities with GC LabCell’s process technology. The cell therapy field is the most active in (clinical) development among biopharmaceuticals, leading to increasing CDMO demand. According to market research firm Frost & Sullivan, the related market size is expected to grow more than fivefold from $680 million last year to $3.7 billion by 2025.