Hanmi Pharmaceutical chairman dies at 80
Lim Sung-ki, chairman and founder of Hanmi Pharmaceutical died of a chronic disease on Sunday. He was 80.
He is recognized with his accomplishments in the Korean pharmaceutical industry, growing a small drug store to a mid-size enterprise logging more than 1 trillion won ($838 million) in annual sales.
Lim was born in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, in 1940 and studied pharmacy at Chung-Ang University. His pharmaceutical career began in 1967, when he opened his namesake drug store, Lim Sung-ki Pharmacy, in Dongdaemun, Seoul. He established Hanmi Pharmaceutical in 1973.
In its early stages, Hanmi Pharmaceutical focused on selling generic drugs and expanded its presence with incrementally modified drugs such as Amosartan.
While growing his company, Lim had emphasized the significance of developing novel drugs, spending nearly 20 percent of annual sales for R&D every year. Last year, the company spent 209.7 billion won on R&D, which amounts to 18.8 percent of its annual sales income of 1.11 trillion won. Reportedly, Hanmi’s accumulated R&D spending in the past 20 years amounts to 2 trillion won.
The effort generated significant results. In 2015, the company signed seven license-out deals with global pharmaceutical titans including Eli Lilly, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi and Janssen. The combined value of the deals reached 8 trillion won.
To share the benefit with employees, the company donated 900,000 shares worth 110 billion won to 2,800 executives and employees in 2016.
As a result of its past R&D efforts, Hanmi Group now stands as one of top 10 pharmaceutical companies in Korea, with its own subsidiaries, branches and offices in five overseas markets. Hanmi Science is the group’s holding firm, controlling Hanmi Pharmaceutical, JVM, Hanmi Japan and a number of other units.
Lim is survived by his wife, Song Young-sook, sons Hanmi Science CEO Chong-yoon and Hanmi Healthcare CEO Jong-hoon, and his daughter Hanmi Pharm Vice President Joo-hyun.
Questions remain over the distribution of the late chairman’s stakes in Hanmi. Lim’s estate includes a 34.26 percent stake in Hanmi Science, while the firm’s CEO and oldest son Chong-yoon only has 3.6 percent.
Inheriting shares worth more than 3 billion won is subject to at least 50 percent tax. Hanmi Science’s market cap stood at 3.33 trillion won as of 11:30 a.m., Monday.