Republic of Korea

The global drug delivery market is expected to reach $100 billion by 2005. As new and more complex drugs are developed, accurate and safe treatment becomes essential. In this field, Seoul-based Samyang Corporation has carved a niche in the local market and emerged as one of the prime movers the local and global pharmaceutical industry.

Yoon Kim, vice chairman and CEO of Samyang Corporation, sees the lucrative drug delivery systems (DDS) market as a perfect match for his company's expertise. He has followed this up with heavy investment at the Samyang Central research-and-development (R&D) center in Daedeok Science Town in Daejeon.

Out of this world class research center, Samyang has brought to market a variety of new techniques and products. Commercial success has already been achieved in many areas. "Genexol, for example, is an anti-cancer compound that greatly reduces the side-effects using previous methods," says Kim. "This product was developed by Samyang Central R&D, and Samyang has become the first to put this novel drug delivery system through advanced clinical trials."

In addition, the company has made advances in other DDS's such as in the areas of analgesic transdermal patches for cancer patients, anti-inflammation transdermal patches, patches for smoking cessation, and anti-rheumatoid arthritis transdermal patches.
Kim Yoon, vice chairman and CEO of Samyang Corporation

Despite this, Samyang is not just a pharmaceutical company. While Samyang has made tremendous advances in its bio-engineering and pharma divisons, their operations are not limited to this area.

The company currently divides its business into nine divisions - ranging from chemicals, to industrial fibers, to foodstuff. With product lines encompassing everything from sugar, flour, and cooking oil to advanced chemicals, engineered plastics and anti-cancer compounds, it is a diversified corporation. Future plans are underway, however, to focus the operations on Samyang's core compentencies in the areas of pharmaceuticals, bioengineering, chemicals, food and animal feed.

Looking towards the future is never an easy task, but Kim handles it with aplomb. "Nothing is certain in this day and age," he remarks, "but so long as we maintain our goals of ethically guided management coupled to unrelenting technological innovation we can concentrate our efforts into strengthening our competitiveness in our core areas. During the coming years we will work even harder to achieve our goal of becoming a company known throughout the world."