Celltrion to Foster Promising Biotechs with Japan's Largest Bio Cluster

The First Korea-Japan Public-Private Open Innovation with KBIC

Two Promising Companies Selected in Fields Such as Antibodies and Peptides

Support Provided from R&D to Global Commercialization

Celltrion will collaborate with the Kobe Biomedical Innovation Cluster (KBIC), the largest bio cluster in Japan, to foster promising bio startups.

On September 8, Celltrion announced the official launch of the "2026 KBIC-Celltrion Global Scale-Up Program," beginning with an offline information session at the LINK-J building in Tokyo, Japan. This initiative is the first-ever Korea-Japan public-private joint open innovation program, jointly planned and operated between a Japanese bio cluster and a domestic Korean company.

Aerial view of Celltrion Plant 2 in Songdo, Incheon. Photo by Hyunmin Kim

Applications for participating companies will be accepted from this month until December. After document screening and presentations, two final startups will be selected by March of next year. The target applicants are bio startups with innovative technology, specifically in fields such as antibodies, peptides, small molecule compounds, and anti-aging, which align with Celltrion’s technology needs. The selected companies will participate in a customized development program throughout 2027 to enhance their technical and business capabilities.

Celltrion will provide mentoring and technical consultation throughout the entire process from pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) to regulatory approval, production, and global commercialization. The company will also utilize its collaboration network, including government and local authorities, academia-industry partnerships, and venture capital (VC) firms, to help startups expand their global commercialization prospects. In addition, opportunities for joint research will be explored, and efforts will be made to achieve tangible results, including the discovery of next-generation pipelines.

KBIC, through its operating institution FBRI (Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation at Kobe), will offer startup-specific acceleration programs. Experts in a variety of areas—including R&D, patents and intellectual property, investment attraction, and business strategy—will be matched to each company, providing hands-on consulting support. Both organizations also plan to provide investment attraction opportunities, such as one-on-one meetings and demo days with domestic investment firms.

Celltrion expects that combining Japan’s robust basic research capabilities and infrastructure with its own global commercialization experience will produce significant synergies. The company is focusing not only on equity investment or technology acquisition but also on fostering an ecosystem where startups can grow independently. Through this program, Celltrion also aims to broaden the foundation for cooperation between the Korean and Japanese bio industries.

A Celltrion official said, "We will continue to actively foster an open innovation ecosystem, so that new companies with innovative technologies can successfully enter the global market."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.