SK Plasma to supply $30 mn in blood products to Singapore

South Korea's SK Plasma on Wednesday announced the launch of full-scale production this month of the blood products albumin and immunoglobulin for Singapore after securing authorization from the island country's Health Sciences Authority (HSA).

Starting with the first shipment in the fourth quarter, the company will exclusively supply $30 million worth of such products over six years. Singaporean health authorities will supply plasma from blood collection centers to SK Plasma, which will churn out finished blood products at its plant in Andong, South Gyeongsang Province, and send them to Singapore.

Blood products are medicines made from blood, whose components are fractionated and purified to make treatments like albumin and immunoglobulin. Such products are used as an essential treatment for shock resulting from excessive bleeding, congenital immunodeficiency disease and hemophilia, and they are designated and managed as medicine crucial for a country because of the widespread need for them in a national disaster.

The Singaporean government sources and supplies blood products through an HSA tender. In 2021, SK Plasma became the first Asian company to win the right through the bidding process to produce via consignment the entire volume of the products.

SK Plasma will toll process and export about 20,000 liters of blood products to Singapore per year. The Singapore plasma has been stocked from this year and will soon be used in production.

“The toll processing of blood products is a case of SK Plasma's technological know-how being recognized as the first exclusive toll processing exports at the country level of European good manufacturing practices,” SK Plasma CEO Kim Seung-joo said. "Based on this result, we plan to keep expanding our global business.”

Write to Jeong Min Nam at peux@hankyung.com