Handok (Chairman & CEO Young-jin Kim, Vice President Jin-ki Paik) and the startup WELT (Wellness Belt) (CEO Seong-ji Kang) will embark on the development of digital treatments. On March 22, 2021, Handok purchased WELT shares amounting to KRW 3 billion and signed a strategic partnership on joint development of digital treatments for alcoholism and insomnia. Financial investors in related fields also took part in the investment, which reached a total of KRW 6 billion.

This agreement is a part of the open innovation pursued by Handok. With this, Handok has managed to expand its R&D sectors from new bio drugs and medical devices to digital treatment. Handok plans to strengthen its capacity in the research, development, and commercialization of digital treatments through WELT and jointly develop digital treatments for alcoholism and insomnia. Handok has secured exclusive sales rights for these two treatments in the domestic market and holds preferred reviewer rights for domestic joint development and commercialization of digital treatments being developed or to be developed by WELT.

WELT is a startup that was founded as a spin-off from Samsung Electronics in 2016. It collaborates with a number of government agencies and was the first Asian member of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance (DTA). By establishing partnerships with leading digital treatment companies, WELT is introducing the first digital treatments in Korea. This is in relation to the MOU for contactless mental health treatment signed with the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) of the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2020.

Handok is advancing its R&D with unique open innovation, which it adopted as a future strategy in 2006 when the concept itself was new to Korea, and is collaborating with leading research institutes and bio-ventures at home and abroad, thus efficiently enhancing its R&D capacity. It is collaborating with bio-ventures with competitive original technology, such as Genexine, SCM Lifescience, and ABL Bio, and increasing its global competitiveness with the US bio-venture Rezolute, Inc. It is also conducting joint research on innovative targeted therapy with CMG Pharmaceutical and National OncoVenture (NOV) and developing medical devices with NB Postech and Handok Kalos Medical. Handok is establishing an R&D center in Magok to become more competitive in open innovation, and that center is set to be completed at the end of this year.