After record venture capital activity around South Korean biotechs last year, the strong investment interest has persisted so far this year, with an increased number of companies receiving large-scale funding as the promising sector emerges amid the pandemic.

Private Company Edition: Clover’s $230m financing was the largest of recent mega-rounds. Century Therapeutics ($160m), Vividion ($135m) and eGenesis ($125m) also raised big rounds and investors Foresite Capital ($969m), Sofinnova Partners ($540m) and OMX Ventures ($150m) raised new VC funds. 

Although South Korean pharma firms are largely sailing toward the common goal of globalization, they have different strategies to reach their goals. Scrip takes a look at the variety of paths being pursued.

Deal Snapshot: Pharma places $30m upfront wager on biotech’s allogeneic natural killer cell and chimeric antigen receptor technologies, with hopes for solid tumor cell therapies.