Kolon Pharma merges with Plat Bio to make a fresh start

▷ The two companies will be merged via a share swap

▷ Kolon Pharma's stable profit structure combines with Plat Bio's global new drug development capabilities to create a world-class bio company.

Kolon Pharma (CEO Jae-kwang Jun) is merging with Plat Bio (CEO Sun-jin Kim) to make a fresh start. On March 29, Kolon Pharma and Plat Bio held a signing ceremony at the Kolon Tower in Gwacheon and announced that they would be combining via a share swap. This will involve the exchanging of 2.38 shares of Kolon Pharma stock for each share of Plat Bio stock, and the merger is scheduled to be complete on June 1st, 2023.

The merger between Kolon Pharma and Plat Bio is the result of meeting the strategic needs of a pharmaceutical company focusing on drug development and distribution and a bio company specializing in new drug development. Kolon Pharma has accumulated broad-based capabilities in the pharmaceutical industry, ranging from incrementally modified and generic drugs to functional health foods. Building on its stable profit structure and strong business performance, Kolon Pharma intends to expand into the development of new anti-cancer drugs with a view to becoming a world-class pharmaceutical bio company.

Since its establishment in 2018, Plat Bio has maintained a steady growth focusing on the development of new drugs for itself as well as jointly with partners. It has discovered some 60 specific targets for pancreatic cancer and ovarian cancer – the largest in Korea – using this as a basis to develop anticancer drugs. Orthotopic transplantation model technology, which is at the core of Plat Bio's new drug development process, has the advantage of dramatically increasing the success rate, as it can accurately measure the efficacy and toxicity of a new drug by directly transplanting tumors into the relevant organs. Currently, a number of pipelines are under development for various cancer types, including pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, and myeloid leukemia, with the goal of licensing them out by 2025.

The newly merged entity, Kolon Pharma, plans to undertake long-term growth plans by leveraging the specialized capabilities of the two companies in synergy. Starting first with the development of major new drug pipelines, the company will expand the business from its domestic focus to technology transfers, pre-clinical projects, and joint research projects with global pharmaceutical companies targeting worldwide markets including Korea and China. In addition, Plat Bio's extensive network with major overseas pharmaceutical companies and rich clinical experience, which are the core assets of Plat Bio, are expected to be a critical stepping stone for business expansion into various areas in the future. Kolon Pharma will take this merger as an opportunity to enhance the company’s growth and future value in both quantitative and qualitative terms, and consider an IPO some time in the future.

After the merger, Kolon Pharma will be operated under the independent representation system of the two CEOs, Jae-kwang Jun and Sun-jin Kim. Mr. Jun will serve as the CEO of the pharmaceutical business division, and Mr. Kim as the CEO of the new drug development division.

CEO Jun said, "The merger between Kolon Pharma, which has recorded stable sales and steady growth in specialized fields, and Plat Bio, which has pioneered the development of new anti-cancer drugs, will be an inflection point opening up new future value for Kolon Pharma." CEO Kim also noted, " Plat Bio's new drug development capabilities and anticancer drug pipelines are expected to reinvent Kolon Pharma as a pharmaceutical bio company equipped with global competitiveness. The merger will serve as an important impetus to maximize synergy between business divisions and expand the scope to new development projects.”

Since its establishment in 1958, Kolon Pharma Co. Ltd. has steadily maintained its business competitiveness in the fields of respiratory science and dermatology. In recent years, it has focused on transforming itself into a comprehensive pharmaceutical and health company by expanding into orthopedics and actively investing in the functional foods business such as nutrition for sports.

Plat Bio Co., Ltd. is a bio company specializing in clinical translational research based on an orthotopic model, and in new drug development building on the largest number of anti-cancer novel targets in Korea. It was founded in October 2018 by CEO Sun-jin Kim, who led the clinical transition research center and the metastasis cancer center for 19 years at the MD Anders Cancer Center in the United States. He participated in more than 10 global drug development programs.