Jeong Tae Kim, General Manager of Daiichi Sankyo Korea, has spent 18 years with the company, including regional roles based in Tokyo before returning to head the Korean affiliate. He spoke to us about managing the patent expiry of the company’s leading anticoagulant this November, the shift toward oncology as part of Daiichi Sankyo’s ambition to become a global top-five oncology company by 2035, Korea’s pricing reform and its implications for market access, and the country’s growing role in the company’s global clinical development.
You have been with Daiichi Sankyo for 18 years. What has kept you with the company for so long?
I trained originally in pharmacy and began my career as a formulation scientist, and I still consider myself someone genuinely passionate about medicine and the science behind it. Daiichi Sankyo is very much a science and technology company at heart, and I take real pride in that. Much of Daiichi Sankyo’s innovation has been built on discoveries originating from our own research, and that strong foundation in science and technology is something I have always been proud of. It is one of the main reasons I have stayed.
Having returned from Tokyo to lead the Korean affiliate, what did you find on arrival, and what was your mandate?
Our overarching aspiration as a company is to become a top-five global oncology leader, so accelerating the growth of our oncology business in Korea has been one of my key priorities. At the same time, we have strong and well-established businesses, particularly in cardiovascular, and protecting the value of those businesses remains equally important. With our leading anticoagulant now approaching patent expiration, another key part of my mandate has been to manage that transition carefully and ensure that we continue to build for the future while maintaining the strength of our established businesses.
Your leading anticoagulant is approaching patent expiry in Korea this November. How are you managing that transition, and how quickly do generics typically gain ground?
These are real challenges. We now need to focus heavily on operational excellence while also protecting the value of our leading anticoagulant as its patent expires this November. In Korea, the decision maker in that transition is ultimately the healthcare professional. In anticoagulation, healthcare professionals remain particularly attentive to bleeding and stroke risk and continue to value the accumulated clinical experience and evidence behind the originator product. For us, continued evidence generation will therefore be an important part of reinforcing confidence in the clinical value of the originator through this transition.
Daiichi Sankyo aims to become a global top-five oncology company. How far along is the Korean affiliate in that transformation?
We are fully aligned with our global organisation and strategy. We established our oncology organisation here around 2019, and since then we have built out a complete structure spanning medical affairs, market access, marketing and sales, with dedicated teams across solid tumours and haematology. In that sense, the foundational transformation is already well underway, and our focus now is on scaling the business and strengthening our position in oncology.
What does it take for Korea to move from being an oncology company to being recognised as a leading player in the field?
Becoming a leading oncology company is not simply about launching more products. It means building strong medical and commercial capabilities, generating evidence, improving patient access and earning the trust of healthcare professionals. For us, the measure of success is ultimately whether innovation reaches patients.
What share of your revenue currently comes from your established non-oncology businesses versus oncology, and how do you expect that mix to evolve?
Roughly 70 percent of our annual revenue still comes from our established non-oncology businesses, with the remainder coming from oncology. That said, we are investing in and accelerating our oncology business here, and it remains a growing part of our portfolio; I expect oncology to represent an increasingly significant share of our business over time.
Turning to Korea’s recent pricing reform, what has worked well, where is there still room for improvement, and has the government responded to your proposals?
I understand why the government is pursuing this reform; ensuring the sustainability of the national health insurance system is an important consideration. While the reform includes price reductions for existing products, the government is also introducing measures aimed at improving reimbursement and patient access, including more flexible incremental cost-effectiveness ratio thresholds and a flexible pricing system. These are positive steps. At the same time, I believe there is still room to evolve the system further so that the value of innovative medicines is more appropriately recognised alongside budget considerations.
One area where further discussion is needed is how Korea can ensure timely access to innovative medicines that continue to expand into new indications through ongoing R&D. ADCs, for example, are rapidly building compelling evidence across multiple tumour types, and Korea’s approach to value assessment needs to reflect these developments in a timely and flexible way. This means taking into account differences in clinical value and patient populations across indications, rather than applying a uniform approach each time a new indication is added. We therefore believe there is value in considering indication-based pricing, which could better reflect differences across indications and support more timely patient access.
In addition, as the global pricing environment continues to evolve, broader use of flexible pricing mechanisms will also be important, including extending their application to medicines that fall within the scope of risk-sharing agreements. This could help improve patient access while managing the international pricing implications of locally published prices.
The industry continues to put forward a range of proposals, and the government has also begun policy review and discussion. Ultimately, these developments should support one common goal: enabling patients to benefit from innovation as early and as broadly as possible.
Oncology spending in Korea is increasing. How confident are you that Daiichi Sankyo’s medicines offer differentiated value for patients?
It is difficult for me to fully capture the value of our medicines in just a few words, but I have genuine confidence in the strength of our ADC platform, both scientifically and clinically. What gives me that confidence is the clinical benefit we are seeing across different tumour types and treatment settings, as well as the potential of our DXd ADC portfolio to address significant unmet medical needs. For patients, that means more treatment options and, in some cases, the possibility of better outcomes where choices have previously been limited.
Does Korea’s pricing environment create tension with headquarters in Tokyo? More broadly, what makes Korea strategically important to Daiichi Sankyo beyond its commercial contribution?
South Korea holds a distinctive position within Daiichi Sankyo globally. It is a very important commercial market, but we also contribute meaningfully to the development of innovative medicines through clinical research. Korea has outstanding tertiary hospitals, excellent clinical infrastructure, and highly experienced investigators, which makes it a strong environment for global pharmaceutical companies to run clinical studies. Several of our oncology clinical programmes have seen Korean sites enrol among the highest patient numbers globally, and recently 4 Korean sites have been designated as oncology early development centres, reflecting how Daiichi Sankyo Korea has come to be recognised as a strong contributor not just to Phase III development, but increasingly to early-phase clinical development as well.
Our global team has placed growing confidence in the Korean team’s capability and commitment. As our DXd ADC pipeline continues to expand globally, Korea is increasingly seen not simply as a launch market, but as a strategic partner across the innovation lifecycle — from early clinical development to evidence generation and, ultimately, patient access.
At a time when many companies are pursuing acquisitions and licensing deals, is Daiichi Sankyo Korea also exploring local biotech partnerships?
That activity currently happens more at the global level than locally; our global organisation actively pursues external innovation through partnerships with biotech companies around the world. In Korea, we remain open to opportunities where local science and capabilities can complement our global strategy. On the commercial side, though, we do partner actively here: in cardiovascular, we work with local Korean pharmaceutical partners, while in oncology, we partner with AstraZeneca.
As your oncology portfolio grows, how would you characterise Daiichi Sankyo’s recognition among Korean healthcare professionals, patients and policymakers?
Historically, Daiichi Sankyo was best known in Korea for its cardiovascular heritage. The emergence of our DXd ADC platform has significantly broadened awareness of Daiichi Sankyo among oncology stakeholders, and our overall presence continues to grow. That said, we remain eager to build on that momentum and are working to broaden recognition of our scientific innovation and the contribution we can make to patient care.
Looking three years ahead, what are your priorities for Daiichi Sankyo Korea, and what continues to motivate you personally after eighteen years with the company?
Looking ahead over the next three years, my priorities are to accelerate our oncology transformation, strengthen Korea’s contribution to global clinical development, and continue improving patient access to innovative medicines. We also need to manage our established businesses carefully as our portfolio evolves, while building the capabilities required for our future growth.
What continues to motivate me personally is still the same principle that has guided me throughout my career: innovation has value only when it reaches patients. Even a truly great medicine delivers limited value if patients cannot actually benefit from it. Our mission is ultimately to bring innovative medicines to as many patients as possible, as quickly as we can, and that remains the most important measure of success for me.
