The cell and gene therapy (CGT) market is projected to expand to approximately KRW 103 trillion by 2030, and the cell culture media market, a core material segment, is also expected to grow rapidly to about KRW 8.5 trillion over the same period. Just as batteries are decisive in electric vehicles and semiconductors in information technology (IT), the decisive battleground in the bioindustry is ultimately “media.” However, the localization rate of bio materials, parts, and equipment (so-called “small but strong” components) in the Republic of Korea stands at a mere 5%. Excel Therapeutics Co., Ltd. is a company breaking out of this barren field toward the global market.

Culture media are key materials that determine cell growth and characteristics, accounting for 10–20% of therapeutic manufacturing costs, yet multinational companies remain at first- and second-generation technologies. Their reliance on animal-derived components entails persistent risks of viral contamination and batch-to-batch quality variation, and makes it difficult to meet regulatory requirements for raw material traceability.

Excel Therapeutics has moved into this structural gap. With its third-generation chemically defined media (Chemically Defined Media, CellCor), formulated solely from chemically characterized ingredients, the company has simultaneously addressed safety, uniformity, and stable supply. Holding the title of the world’s first developer of “GMP-grade chemically defined media for stem cells,” the company further validated its technological capabilities with a planned listing on KOSDAQ in July 2024. CEO Lee Eui-il asserts, “Once technology responds and productivity is secured, the market will inevitably grow.”

The real reason the company is drawing attention is that it is building a “sellable structure” in parallel. While continuing R&D investment amounting to 234% of last year’s sales, it has also signed distribution rights agreements with global healthcare company Becton Dickinson (BD) and Japan’s PeptiGrowth, establishing a CGT total solution provider business model.

Its distribution business, which provides media alongside materials, reagents, and equipment on a one-stop basis, generated approximately KRW 850 million in sales in the first quarter of this year, entering a full-fledged growth trajectory. The company is targeting annual product sales alone of KRW 6–8 billion this year.

Overseas results are also accumulating. Excel Therapeutics has opened a gateway into the Chinese market by signing a T-cell media supply contract worth USD 375,000 (approximately KRW 560 million) with BlueMag Biotech, the world’s largest hyaluronic acid producer based in China. Once selected as raw and subsidiary materials for CGT, media are incorporated into the manufacturing process from early clinical stages and receive product approval together with the therapy, making it practically very difficult to switch suppliers once chosen.

Thanks to this strong “lock-in effect” characteristic of the media business, supply volume is expected to increase year after year. Through BlueMag, a local media distributor, the company has secured confirmed supply of T-cell media to Shanghai Cell Therapy Group, China’s largest private CGT company, thereby winning a major customer capable of large-scale procurement—a development seen as highly significant.

In addition, Excel Therapeutics has successfully concluded an exosome-specific media contract (USD 350,000) with Xiangya Bio, whose CTO is Martin John Evans, laureate of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The company is also building a performance track record in Southeast Asian markets such as Taiwan, Indonesia, and Vietnam, where governments are fostering the CGT industry at the national level.

Excel Therapeutics is simultaneously working to strengthen its production capacity. Its GMP facility in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do currently has production capacity worth approximately KRW 25 billion, and after being selected this year for the government’s “Manufacturing Support Project for Raw and Subsidiary Materials,” the company plans to establish automated production lines and expand capacity by 2.5 times by next year. Once automation is completed, the industry expects this to become an inflection point for profitability improvement, as it will not only enhance responsiveness to global large-volume supply but also reduce labor costs and improve yield at the same time.

The R&D pipeline is also expanding. The company is currently undertaking seven national R&D projects and has secured more than KRW 10 billion in government funding through 2028. The launch of high value-added new products dedicated to iPSCs (induced pluripotent stem cells) and T cells in the second half of this year will deepen the portfolio, and the technologies honed in CGT media are opening new opportunities in the skin regeneration and functional cosmetics markets as well.

All of these developments are being reinforced by institutional support. The “CDMO Special Act,” scheduled to take effect in December, will institutionally guarantee market entry for domestically produced materials, and the revised Advanced Regenerative Bio Act (Act on the Safety of and Support for Advanced Regenerative Medicine and Advanced Biopharmaceuticals), enforced in February this year, has lowered barriers to commercialization of CGT. CEO Lee Eui-il stated, “Unlike automobiles and semiconductors, the localization rate of bio materials, parts, and equipment is only 5%. Please pay attention to Excel Therapeutics’ localization efforts,” adding, “Expect our positioning three years from now rather than focusing on current sales.”

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