Celltrion Inc., a major South Korean biopharmaceutical firm, said Tuesday it plans to decide whether to pursue a merger with its chemical drug-producing affiliate, Celltrion Pharm Inc., later this week. The decision will be made during a board meeting on Friday and the result will be shared with the shareholders immediately, the Korean company said in a statement. The board will review the results of a shareholder survey, as well as reports on the potential synergies, risks and external evaluations of the merger, all conducted by an ad hoc committee. In recent years, Celltrion Group has been pushing for the integration of its three listed firms -- Celltrion, Celltrion Healthcare and Celltrion Pharm -- in a bid to become a global drugmaker in biosimilar and new drug development. Celltrion first merged with its sales affiliate, Celltrion Healthcare, in December and has been planning to integrate with Celltrion Pharm this year. Celltrion is the seventh-largest company on the main Korea Composite Stock Pric e Index bourse in terms of market capitalization at about 41.9 trillion won (US$30.6 billion). Source: Yonhap News Agency