Novartis to Build Radiopharmaceutical Ecosystem in South Korea with approximately $101.4 Million Investment — BigGo Finance

Novartis is investing approximately 140 billion won (approximately $101.4 million) to develop South Korea as a radioligand therapy (RLT) hub. The core of the plan involves building manufacturing facilities and an advanced cold-chain logistics network, while expanding the number of hospitals capable of administering RLT from the current 10 to 30.

Byungjae Yoo, President of Novartis Korea, recently explained the significance of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed with South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare to build an RLT ecosystem in an interview with Maeil Business Newspaper. “RLT is like a ‘comprehensive art form’ that requires basic science, hospitals and medical staff, radioactive material production and logistics, and regulation to all mesh together with precision,” he said. “South Korea already has a solid foundation in place.”

RLT began attracting attention as a next-generation anti-cancer platform after Novartis’s metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer treatment Pluvicto grew into a blockbuster last year, generating approximately $2 billion (about 2.8 trillion won) in revenue. Both Pluvicto and Lutathera, a treatment for neuroendocrine tumors, are approved in South Korea. Current domestic supply is manufactured in Europe, and once local production facilities are established, the plan is to begin with Pluvicto, which has the highest demand.

Yoo identified expanding treatment access for South Korean patients as the core significance of this investment. “We considered areas that could provide new treatment options for patients who have not received sufficient benefit from existing cancer therapies while simultaneously enhancing South Korea’s healthcare competitiveness, and the point where these two objectives intersected was RLT,” he said.

He explained that domestic production would enable patients to receive treatment when needed and allow medical professionals to accumulate RLT clinical experience more smoothly. If clinical trials for new cancer types proceed rapidly in South Korea, patients will also have broader opportunities for early access to innovative treatments.

Selecting South Korea as an RLT investment hub required a considerable persuasion process. Domestically, Novartis needed to explain to the South Korean government why RLT should be prioritized for development among various next-generation treatment technologies such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and gene therapies, while simultaneously convincing Novartis headquarters why South Korea should be elevated to a strategic priority.

In this process, Yoo emphasized that South Korea possesses medical professionals and hospital infrastructure that have accumulated substantial RLT treatment experience through prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumor therapies. “I emphasized these strengths and the environment that actively embraces new innovative technologies to headquarters, and persuaded them that South Korea has sufficient capability and potential to grow RLT,” he said.

With global pharmaceutical companies such as Roche and Eli Lilly recently announcing large-scale investment plans in South Korea in succession, some have assessed that Novartis’s 140 billion won investment is relatively modest. Yoo countered that each company uses different criteria for calculating investment scale, and that attention should focus on the scalability of the RLT ecosystem to be built through this investment.

“The investment amount Novartis has disclosed covers investments directly related to RLT, including personnel, training, and center expansion. If clinical research, startup collaboration, and talent investment were included, the scale could differ,” he said. “In the bio industry, creating a foundation where platforms and talent can converge is more important than the initial investment amount.”

He also left the door open for collaboration with South Korean companies. Domestic pharmaceutical and biotech companies such as SK Biopharmaceuticals are also designating RLT as a next-generation growth engine and pursuing related therapy development and technology acquisition. “RLT is not simply a competitive landscape but rather a platform combining multiple elements, so there are diverse areas for collaboration,” Yoo said, suggesting possibilities such as strengthening hospitals’ clinical capabilities or joint research and development of specific radioisotopes.

Expanding patient access through national health insurance coverage was identified as a key challenge for the South Korean RLT ecosystem to take root. “We need to find a balance between the public value that all patients should have the opportunity to protect their lives and quality of life, and the industrial value of sustaining new innovation,” Yoo said. “It is important to build social consensus on how to expand access to innovative treatments within limited resources.”