“This year marks an important turning point as we expand our business portfolio by launching culture media specifically designed for immune cells. We will accelerate our expansion into overseas markets by securing global partners.”
Lee Dong-hyun, head of marketing at Excelthera, made the remarks. In an interview with News1 last month, Lee said, “We are focusing on expanding global collaboration opportunities by leveraging the NK cell- and T cell-specific culture media launched this year.”
Excelthera is a company that conducts research and development, manufacturing and sales of cell culture media in-house. The company previously focused its business on stem cell culture media but expanded its product portfolio this year with the introduction of new immune cell culture media.
“The most important goal right now is not securing investment but finding global collaboration partners,” Lee said. “We are focusing on finding partners who can sell both our existing products and newly launched products together.”
The company recently held about 15 to 20 partnering meetings at global biotech events and is continuing additional discussions. The growing global reputation of K-bio has become a major advantage for the company.
“It is true that in the past, interest in Korean companies was lower than that in U.S. or European companies,” Lee said. “However, recently, companies with strong technology are no longer being overlooked simply because they are Korean. Global companies are showing significant interest in Korean biotech technologies.”
He added, “Our animal-origin-free (AOF) chemical composition-based culture media technology is an area that global competitors are also paying attention to.”
“Many global companies still do not have products that completely exclude animal-derived materials,” Lee said. “We believe we are ahead in terms of technology, and competitors are also closely watching us.”
Pursuing Japan PMDA Certification Following FDA DMF Registration to Strengthen Global Credibility
Excelthera plans to launch new products, including NK cell-specific culture media and T cell-specific AOF culture media, in the fourth quarter of this year. The company expects market interest to grow further following the launches and aims to expand sales in overseas markets, including China.
Securing domestic references is also important for overseas expansion. Lee said, “Domestic demand companies need to actively use our products, which will also help us expand overseas.” He added, “Following registration of our Drug Master File (DMF) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), we are also pursuing related certification with Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) to continuously strengthen global credibility.”
Regarding recently strengthened requirements for maintaining biotech company listings, Lee emphasized the need for an approach that considers the characteristics of the industry.
“The biotech industry requires a long period of time from research and development to generating revenue,” Lee said. “While companies must make efforts to expand sales, policy support and evaluation systems that take the characteristics of the industry into account are also necessary.”
He added, “Through business diversification, the company’s annual revenue last year was already exceeded during the first half of this year. We will continue expanding overseas businesses and launching new products to maintain growth momentum in the second half of the year.”