Before joining the family business of Green Cross in 1979, Mr Il-Sup Huh, the fifth son in the family, served the Korean military. He left the company few months after joining to pursue master's as well as doctoral degree in business administration in the US. Gaining the necessary skill sets and knowledge of running a business, Dr Il-Sup Huh rejoined the business in 1991 to support his second brother who was the chairman at that time. He took over the company in 2009 as its chairman after serving in different positions.

BioSpectrum recognized the man for his achievements in the Korea biotechnology industry with the BioSpectrum Asia Pacific Bioscience Industry Peron of the Year Award in 2012 (see selection criteria). He received the award at the awards night held in Singapore on March 16, 2012.  

Success with Green Cross

Green Cross, established in 1967 to produce drugs that are hard to make but essential for human beings, particularly in vaccine and plasma derivatives business, saw many milestones under the stewardship of Dr Huh. A second generation entrepreneur, Dr Huh maintained the direction of the company towards research and development and was fully committed to the development of new medicines by investing annually five-to-seven percent of total sales revenue in R&D, the largest amount among pharmaceutical companies in Korea.

Green Cross' hepatitis B vaccine, Hepavax, launched in 1983 and has sold over 400 million doses by 2010, has been distributed to 60 countries and international organizations, such as WHO and UNICEF, and has been recorded as the most widely used hepatitis B vaccine. Following the success of Hepavax, Dr Il-Sup Huh directed Green Cross to successfully develop a chicken pox vaccine, the world's second in 1993, and an AIDS diagnostic reagent for the first time in Korea.

In the year 2009 when the pandemic H1N1 situation occurred, Green Cross succeeded in rapidly developing H1N1 influenza vaccine and received marketing authorization from the Korea FDA. "If you consider the contribution of Green Cross in reducing the medical expenses caused by the epidemic and in stabilizing the national crisis by indigenous production and supply, the H1N1 vaccine developed by Green Cross brought much more than its nominal value to the Korean society," recalls Dr Huh proudly.

In addition, Green Cross developed the third generation recombinant hemophilia A drug named GreenGene F. In 2010, Green Cross earned the biggest ever chickenpox vaccine supply contract from Pan America Health Organization. It also obtained the USFDA approval for a new drug for Parkinson's disease. In 2011, Green Cross witnessed another successful year in its history. In January 2011, it succeeded in developing an orphan drug for Hunter Syndrome, named Hunterase, which will provide an alternative treatment option for those suffering from this rare genetic disease. Green Cross filed an application for the approval of Hunterase.

Dr Huh has guided Green Cross with the fundamental principle of enabling healthy people maintain their health, supplying vaccines needed to prevent diseases, and to develop and supply medicines to help patients rapidly recover from diseases. Throughout his career in Green Cross, Dr Huh has aimed to bring innovation and uniqueness. When most of the Asian companies are following the game of generics drugs or biosimilars, Green Cross aims to develop new drugs that require innovative technology or targets a segmented market.

Strengthening its R&D focus, Green Cross announced its plan to build the largest R&D center in Korea, scheduled to be completed in February 2013. The total construction area will be 28,510 sq m. Green Cross has almost 20 pipelines of biobetter drugs, vaccines, rare medicines, and synthetic medicines that have reached the pre-clinical stage. Furthermore, the corporation is planning to launch self-developed new medicines each year from 2011 to 2018.