Forging our path ahead beyond food to become a global healthcare company
In 2020, Orion Group focused on biotechnology as the new engine for growth and has expanded the business lines from food to healthcare that improves the quality of life. We co-founded Shandong Lukang Orion Biotechnology Development Hao Li You in partnership with a Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company, Shandong Lukang Pharmaceutical GroupMedicine, in March last year March 2021. Through the joint venture, we are introducing promising biotechnology and commercializing them in China.
We are actively focused on in vitro diagnostics for early detection of severe cancer, the most common cancer in China, and vaccines for contagious diseases. Going forward, we plan to expand our business to synthetic drugs and new drug development.
Orion Group periodically holds the Korea-China Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Development Forum where leading experts in the finance, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology sectors in Korea gather to discover top-performing biotech companies and act as a partner who guides these companies as they enter the Chinese market. Biotechnologies discovered at the forum will get objectively screened in terms of technology and marketability by pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical professionals in Korea and abroad including China and Japan who will make decisions based on technology and marketability. Then Rukang Haoriyowu Shandong Lukang Orion Biotechnology Development takes these technologies that passed the screening and undertakes a clinical trial, a licensing process in China, and then finally produce, sell, and market them locally.
Commercialization of diagnostic kits for colorectal cancer in China
Orion Group signed a contract with a Korean in vitro cancer diagnosis company, Genomictree, on introduction of in vitro diagnosis technology for colorectal cancer in May 2021 through the Rukang Haoriyowu. Then we have built a mass-production infrastructure (laboratories and production facilities) for in vitro cancer diagnostic products in China. Within this year, we will conduct clinical trials in China with products manufactured through the infrastructure.
The early diagnosis market for colorectal cancer is seen as a lucrative market worldwide. Today, as many as 280,000 people die from colorectal cancer annually in China due to lack of distribution rate of colonoscopy equipment in hospitals. As the need for the Chinese government to detect cancer early on and relieve the financial burden on medical expenses is increasing, the marketability of diagnostic kits for colorectal caner is high in the country. Diagnostic kits for colorectal cancer by Genomictree is capable of identifying colorectal cancer with just 1-2g of feces with 90% accuracy. Diagnostic kit users can also get results within just 8 hours that we anticipate that we can gain competitive edge in the field of early diagnosis of colorectal cancer.