This story appears in the May 9, 2016 issue of Forbes Asia. Subscribe to Forbes Asia
It’s rare for one company to produce two new members for the list of the 50 Richest South Koreans. But this year Hanmi Pharmaceutical catapulted two entrepreneurs not only onto the list but also straight into the ranks of the World’s Billionaires. Lim Sung-Ki debuted at No. 7 and Shin Dong-Guk at No. 31 as shares in their pharmaceutical giant, Hanmi Science, surged 226% over the past year. Investors piled into Hanmi following a series of licensing deals with international pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi and Janssen that totaled more than $7 billion. The big pharma outfits like the potential for the new arthritis and diabetes drugs that Hanmi is developing. The deals put the company—and, by extension, the country—on the map as a global player in the $1 trillion industry.
Lim, who together with his family own 57% of Hanmi Science, earned a pharmacy degree from Seoul’s Chung-Ang University in 1965. Eight years later he opened a pharmacy in Seoul bearing his name and changed it to Hanmi Pharmaceutical Industry that same year. Three months later it launched its first product, an antibacterial powder.
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Today Hanmi Science is the country’s largest drugmaker, generating $947 million in revenue last year. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index ranked it Asia’s best-performing stock for 2015; its subsidiary, Hanmi Pharmaceutical, came in second. FORBES ASIA spotted Hanmi Pharm early on: In 2006 it made the roster of the 200 best listed companies in the Asia-Pacific region with annual revenue of under $1 billion.
As for Shin, his fortune comes from the 12.5% stake he holds in Hanmi Science, which he bought as an investment after meeting Lim. The two are from the same city of Gimpo, located north of Seoul, and had even attended the same high school. But Shin, 66, is ten years his junior and they didn’t meet until years later through a hometown association. In 2010, Shin began investing in Hanmi.
Like Lim, Shin is also a self-made entrepreneur, though his path to success was a steeper climb.
He was so poor as a child, he remembers, that his family lived on flowers and extracts from the bark of pine trees. It wasn’t until later that they could afford barley rice, which only the poor were known to eat. “There is nothing better than suffering that allows one to grow, it’s worth more than a Harvard degree,” he told his hometown newspaper. He started auto-parts manufacturer Hanyang Precision in 1981, which last year saw revenue top $95 million, and he remains the chairman. Nearly 22% of Shin’s $1.1 billion fortune comes from Hanyang, which is headquartered in Gimpo.
Meanwhile, another self-made pharma billionaire, Seo Jung-Jin (No. 13), enjoyed a $500 million jump in his wealth as shares of his biotech company, Celltrion, rose nearly 25% over the past year. Last month the U.S. approved its biosimilar drug Inflectra, produced with Pfizer’s Hospira unit, as a cheaper version of Remicade. The drug is primarily used to treat arthritis and Crohn’s disease.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Lim encouraged Shin to buy Hanmi shares; Hanmi Science says their relationship was irrelevant to the investment.
