[JPM 2026] Seo Jinseok, Celltrion CEO: "Quadruple Action Obesity Drug to Reduce Rebound and Side Effects"

Press Conference Held During JPMHC

Celltrion has unveiled its strategy to overcome the limitations of being a latecomer in the obesity drug market by differentiating itself with a "quadruple action" approach, putting its new obesity treatment at the forefront during the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPMHC).

Seo Jinseok, CEO of the Management Division at Celltrion, stated at a press conference in San Francisco, California, USA, where JPMHC was held on January 14 (local time), "We are currently working on two separate projects for obesity drug development: a quadruple action agent and an oral formulation." He added, "The quadruple action obesity treatment 'CT-G32' unveiled at this JPMHC is being rapidly developed with the goal of submitting an Investigational New Drug (IND) application in the second half of next year."

Seo Jinseok, CEO of the Management Division at Celltrion, is giving a presentation at the main track of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference held on the 13th (local time) in San Francisco, California, USA. Celltrion

Seo explained, "Current obesity treatments on the market have significant limitations, such as wide variations in efficacy among individuals, loss of lean body mass (the weight excluding body fat), or the occurrence of the yo-yo effect." He continued, "The development goal of CT-G32 is to address these unmet needs."

CT-G32 employs a multi-combination strategy based on GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1), but the specific components of the combination have not been disclosed. However, Seo noted, "It could be glucagon or something else, but as far as I know, there is no drug with the same combination as Celltrion's." He added, "We plan to release the data once animal model results become available early this year." Recently, the development of obesity treatments has been moving toward targeting multiple metabolic hormone pathways-such as GLP-1, GIP (gastric inhibitory polypeptide), amylin, and glucagon-to enhance efficacy.

The operating principle for the new drug pipeline has also been summarized as "selection and speed." At last year's JPMHC, Celltrion announced plans to develop 13 new drug candidates by 2028, but this year, the company described its IND-submission pipeline as consisting of 12 candidates. Seo stated, "We continuously make internal changes-removing candidates if animal test data is lacking, or adding new ones. Since the risk structure of biosimilars and new drugs is different, stricter selection is required from the early stages."

He added, "We discontinued development of about two candidates after reviewing animal test data, and proceeded with about three more, with one advancing as a development target." The message is that "data-driven replacement and reorganization," rather than simply sticking to planned numbers, is itself a core R&D competitiveness factor.

Regarding artificial intelligence (AI), which was a major topic at this year's JPMHC, Seo said, "We established a content team dedicated to AI two years ago," and explained, "The three main pillars of AI utilization are new drug development, LLM (large language models), and factory automation." According to Seo, the company is already capable of identifying new drug targets from genetic data internally. He continued, "We will also begin applying protein structure prediction models to new drug development starting this year. Once the system is established, the internal computing barriers are rapidly lowered, accelerating adoption."

Celltrion's expansion of AI aligns with the New Year's address by Chairman Seo Jungjin. At the beginning of this year, Chairman Seo emphasized, "AI is fundamentally changing the industrial landscape," and stated, "We will introduce AI platforms across all areas, from development to production and sales, to maximize work efficiency and create future achievements."