Korea’s Micro Digital to supply bioreactors to major US firm

Micro Digital Co., South Korea’s only bioreactor maker, is set to ink a supply deal with a major US biopharmaceutical producer to expand its global business.

“We will sign a formal contract to supply bioreactors to a company in North America as early as the first half,” Micro Digital CEO Kim Kyungnam told The Korea Economic Daily on Monday, declining to provide details such as the name of the buyer.

Micro Digital January inked a memorandum of understanding with the US company for global sales of its single-use bioreactors and disposable bioreactor bags.

The South Korean tech-heavy Kosdaq-listed company is scheduled to make its initial shipment of products and send staff to the US firm for training later this month.

Micro Digital’s stock surged as much as 12.7% to 7,880 won ($6), the highest since May 2022 on Tuesday morning after Kim’s remarks, far outperforming the wider Kosdaq, which rose 0.7%.

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The supply deal is expected to help Micro Digital increase its market share in the rapidly growing global single-use bioreactor industry, company officials said.

The sector was forecast to more than double to $14.2 billion by 2026 from $6.4 billion last year, according to industry analysis firm Marketsandmarkets Research.

Micro Digital’s US buyer is considered to be highly influential in the market as the company with more than 50,000 employees in over 100 countries generated sales of $16 billion last year.

“We aim to secure 10%, or 488.3 billion won, of the North American disposable bioreactor market occupied by the client,” said Kim, who founded Micro Digital in 2002.

The global bioreactor market is dominated by three companies including Cytiva in the US due to challenging technical requirements.

It is key for bioreactors to provide nutrients to micrometer-sized cells while strictly controlling conditions such as oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations, temperature and acidity. When the cell mass grows, it must be transferred to a larger bioreactor with the exactly same conditions.

Micro Digital’s single-use bioreactor Celbic lineup allows customers to move cells in every direction as the products do not have agitators, which are often installed on other bioreactors and damage cells.

Write to Gyeong-Jin Min at min@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.