CEO eyes AI drug discovery, potential Nvidia ties and global biotech partnerships SK Biopharmaceuticals CEO Lee Dong-hoon speaks in a press conference at the BIO International Convention in San Diego on Monday. (Joint Press Corps.) Korea Herald correspondentSAN DIEGO — SK Biopharmaceuticals has bet big on artificial intelligence and open innovation as the two core pillars that will drive the Korean drugmaker’s future growth.“It took us almost 30 years to launch Xcopri as we did everything from development to commercialization and sales, unlike other firms,” said Lee Dong-hoon, CEO of SK Biopharmaceuticals, in a press conference at the BIO International Convention in San Diego on Monday.The growing sales of Xcopri, which is a seizure medicine, brought SK Biopharmaceuticals’ best-ever first-quarter earnings this year: 227.9 billion won ($148 million) in sales and 89.8 billion won in operating profit.“It was a very difficult process, but now (Xcopri) is poised to become a blockbuster. Although we could use the same method to develop new pipelines, it’s going to take a decade or longer. So we are going to approach it in two ways: AI and open innovation,” said the CEO.The remarks to double down on AI came a day after SK Biopharmaceuticals announced a partnership with AI drug discovery company Insilico Medicine to discover innovative drug candidates in the neuroimmune area of the central nervous system. Unlike traditional early-stage drug discoveries, which usually take 2.5 to 4 years, Insilico has consistently reached preclinical candidate nomination in an average of just 12 to 18 months.Under the collaboration, Insilico will be eligible to receive approximately $4.5 million in an upfront payment, as the deal’s potential maximum value may exceed $2.5 billion depending on milestones and royalties on net sales upon commercialization.“When we had the Insilico CEO coming in for photos and handshakes, he joked about us getting SK hynix HBM chips for them to work things out together (with SK Biopharmaceuticals),” said Lee.“It could be just a saying, but it means that our fit is strong because being a part of SK Group helps that fit. We could get some help from SK hynix, a leader in AI innovation.”Regarding the possibility of SK Biopharmaceuticals teaming up with Nvidia — much like SK hynix and SK Group’s top management have established a partnership with the global graphic processing unit (GPU) leader — Lee said the company is considering various options at the moment without revealing further details.As for the second pillar of the next growth engine, the SK Biopharmaceuticals CEO pointed to the company’s recent establishment of SK Life Science LinX, an open innovation space for Korea’s promising biotechnology firms, in New Jersey.“With our experiences in the US, we decided to provide a foothold for companies from Asia, including Korea, to bring over their technology to the US for development and commercialization. It’s what we are internally preparing as the ‘East-West bridge’ concept,” said Lee.“Rather than trying to do every business by ourselves, we believe that it’s more fitting for us to do this together.” SK Biopharmaceuticals' exhibition booth at the 2026 BIO International Convention in San Diego (SK Biopharmaceuticals)