Shin Yu-yeol attends CPHI in Milan, then Bio Japan in Yokohama — third consecutive year; 30-plus partnering meetings held; Songdo factory completion in November seen as key selling point
Shin Yu-yeol, co-CEO of Lotte Biologics, gave up his entire Hangul Day holiday to embark on a sweeping global tour spanning Europe and Japan.
After completing his schedule at CPHI Worldwide 2026 — the world's largest pharmaceutical and biotech trade fair — in Milan, Shin flew directly to Yokohama, Japan, where he personally led the company's presence at Bio Japan 2026, Asia's largest biotech event, on Friday.
Friday marked Shin's third consecutive year at Bio Japan, following his appearances in 2024 and 2025. He has also attended the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco for three straight years from 2024 through early this year, and visited Bio USA in Boston last year. Shin makes the annual trip to Yokohama to target the Japanese market, a key hub in the Asia-Pacific region and home to a concentration of global pharmaceutical majors.
Appearing at the Pacifico Yokohama exhibition hall on the final day of the event, Shin toured the company's booth, encouraged staff, and personally conducted business meetings with prospective clients. Lotte Biologics held more than 30 partnering meetings with global pharmaceutical and biotech companies during the event, reflecting an aggressive push for new business.
Asked about his impressions from meeting potential clients, Shin said, "I met people who could become our customers, and it made me feel I need to do even better." On the company's strategy for expanding global orders, he added, "Once the Songdo factory is completed, we will use that as our strongest selling point."
Earlier at CPHI Worldwide 2026, Shin signed a drug substance CMO contract with Alvotech, a leading European biosimilar company. The 10-year deal begins at Lotte Biologics' Syracuse factory and will later involve a technology transfer to Songdo Plant 1 — a linked model that industry observers say represents the first tangible result of the company's "dual site" strategy.
A key factor behind the landmark contract was the Syracuse factory's recent unannounced FDA inspection, which it passed without a single deficiency, demonstrating the facility's quality competitiveness. "There was real production demand, which made a good contract possible," Shin said, adding that the deal was a strategic win tailored to the client's needs.
Lotte Biologics plans to hold a completion ceremony for Songdo Plant 1 in Incheon in November, marking the start of full commercial operations. The plant received its building use approval just two years after breaking ground. It features a vertically integrated structure in which culture media is prepared on the top fifth floor and supplied downward, and is equipped with eight large 15,000-liter bioreactors totaling 120,000 liters of capacity, along with an unmanned robotic warehouse with 6,030 storage slots. The company also moved up its GMP-ready target — originally set for April 2027 — by six months to this November in response to requests from global clients for earlier operation.
Lotte Biologics carries significant weight as a core future business for Lotte Group. Chairman Shin Dong-bin visited the Syracuse factory, acquired from Bristol Myers Squibb last year, and then personally inspected Songdo Plant 1's construction progress and infrastructure in July. In August, all roughly 650 employees from the Jamsil headquarters and research divisions began reporting to the new Songdo Bio Campus, completing what the company calls a "one-team" structure.
Industry observers say that with firm group-level backing and hands-on operational support, Shin is pursuing a broad global order drive that is putting Lotte's biotech expansion on a full-fledged trajectory.
silverpaper@heraldcorp.com
