CK Life’s new CEO counts on Big Pharma experience to boost new drug success, earnings

Lance Yuen, the new chief of CK Life Sciences International, is banking on his experience with global pharmaceutical giants to help the healthcare company bring drug candidates to the market and enhance its earnings outlook.

Yuen, who last month became CEO at the firm controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, spent two decades in the region at US drug giant Bristol-Myers Squibb and German biotechnology and pharmaceutical group Bayer. He sees himself as a “commercialisation expert rather than a scientist.”

“To successfully launch a drug, the commercialisation team needs to start getting involved in the middle of the drug development process,” he said. “If CK Life can help fight cancer by developing therapies, early detection diagnostics and prevention vaccines, that is something I very much want to be part of.”

Yuen previously led the consumer health unit in Asia-Pacific at Bayer. He also spent 10 years as head of China at Bristol-Myers Squibb, whose immuno-oncology drugs have had a huge impact on cancer treatment, and led negotiations with the Chinese government and insurers to provide better patient access to its hepatitis-B drug.

He spoke a day after CK Life agreed to merge its Canada-based unit Wex Pharmaceuticals with US-based and Nasdaq-listed Virios Therapeutics in a US$100 million (HK$780 million) all-stock deal. Wex develops chemotherapy-induced nerve pain drugs, while Virios produces drugs for long-Covid and chronic pain disorder fibromyalgia.