Choi Chang-won, Vice Chairman of SK Discovery
Leading SK's Vaccine Business
Acquired Dongshin Pharmaceutical Shares in 2001
Established Large-scale Production Facility L House in 2012
Strongly Promoted Despite "Unreasonable" Concerns
Launched New Vaccines Including Cell-cultured Influenza Vaccine
Received Orders for COVID Vaccine Contract Manufacturing
Choi Chang-won, Vice Chairman of SK Discovery, is speaking at the Global Forum held at the SK Bioscience headquarters in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do on the afternoon of the 27th. [Image source=Yonhap News]
[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] SK Bioscience's success in developing 'Skycovione' (development name GBP510) is being recognized as the fruition of over 20 years of vaccine business investment led by Choi Chang-won, Vice Chairman of SK Discovery.
According to the economic sector on the 27th, Vice Chairman Choi is the cousin of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and leads SK Discovery, the 'holding company' within SK Group. Under SK Discovery are SK Chemicals and SK Gas, and beneath SK Chemicals, SK Bioscience is positioned as a subsidiary, effectively forming a small group.
There were two major turning points that enabled SK Bioscience to grow into a vaccine-specialized company with global top-tier capabilities in self-developing COVID-19 vaccines. It is known that Vice Chairman Choi personally took the helm and led the business through both turning points.
Entry into Vaccine Business in 2001 and Factory Establishment in 2012... Both Directed by Him
SK Bioscience began as the vaccine business division of SK Chemicals. After entering the pharmaceutical industry in 1988 and leading the domestic pharmaceutical industry with successes such as the development of 'Sunpla,' the first purely domestic new anticancer drug in 1999, SK Chemicals attempted a full business restructuring in the 2000s. The strategy for this was mergers and acquisitions (M&A). In 2001, SK Chemicals acquired shares in Dongshin Pharmaceutical, a vaccine and blood product specialist, and fully merged Dongshin Pharmaceutical in 2006.
At that time, Vice Chairman Choi judged that the global pharmaceutical and bio industry trend was shifting from treatment to prevention alongside aging populations, and identified the vaccine business as a new growth engine. Although Dongshin Pharmaceutical was a major domestic vaccine company, it had fallen into crisis after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Acquiring it laid the foundation for a new leap forward. Subsequently, SK Chemicals established a life sciences research institute in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province in 2008 and selected premium vaccines as the next growth driver, actively pursuing vaccine development for influenza, pneumococcus, and shingles.
When vaccine development began to become visible, SK Chemicals faced another turning point: the establishment of the L House vaccine factory in Andong, Gyeongbuk Province, the largest vaccine factory in Korea, in 2012. However, there were many discouraging views about the Andong L House project. Many considered a large-scale production facility a reckless gamble given that there were no self-developed vaccines yet.
Despite the discouragement, Vice Chairman Choi emphasized the importance of a large-scale production plant. An SK Bioscience official said, "At that time, Vice Chairman Choi stressed that this was a matter of life and death. Even if vaccine development succeeded, if production could not be carried out, the opportunity would be lost, so he strongly pushed for L House production." The successive launches of the country's first trivalent cell-cultured influenza vaccine in 2014 and the world's first quadrivalent cell-cultured influenza vaccine in 2015 are reasons why it is said that these successes would not have been possible without L House.
An industry insider said, "Since it was a business considered reckless, a professional manager might not have pursued it. Vice Chairman Choi, who has continuously observed the pharmaceutical and bio business since joining SK Chemicals in 1994, strongly drove the project and achieved great success."
Choi Chang-won, Vice Chairman of SK Discovery (left in the photo), visited the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) in Seattle, USA last month to commemorate cooperation in vaccine development. Photo by Choi Chang-won
Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, L House played a role in overcoming the crisis. Although vaccine development succeeded, developers without production capabilities flocked to SK Bioscience. BioTech company Novavax as well as global big pharma AstraZeneca entrusted COVID-19 vaccine contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) to SK Bioscience because they lacked separate production capabilities, which was only possible due to the Andong L House.
However, Vice Chairman Choi was notably absent from the visits by presidents to SK Bioscience's development and production sites after the pandemic. During last year's visit to L House by President Moon Jae-in and the visit to the Pangyo headquarters by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol in April, it was Chairman Chey Tae-won who welcomed them. It is known that Vice Chairman Choi personally judged it appropriate for the group head and elder brother to be present.
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