Lotte Biologics eyes first ADC CDMO order in 2025

SAN FRANCISCO -- Lotte Biologics Co., the drug consignment development and production unit of South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group, will seek to win its first order with its proprietary antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform this year, its new chief said.

“Our goal is to win the first order this year,” Lotte Biologics Chief Executive James Park said at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference on Thursday. “We will introduce our company’s vision to potential customers at the Syracuse Campus.”

Park, who took the helm of the Korean pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) last month, also unveiled the company’s novel ADC platform, SoluFlex Link, to audiences at the conference in San Francisco.

ADC is seen as a promising, next-generation anticancer drug, and SoluFlex Link was jointly developed by Lotte Biologics and Kanaph Therapeutics, a Korean bio-venture specializing in drug conjugation technology.

The new order the company hopes to obtain in 2025 is expected to be an ADC CDMO contract as it prepares to finish construction of ADC lines at its Syracuse Campus in New York within the first quarter of this year.

Lotte Biologics acquired a drug manufacturing plant in Syracuse, New York, from US-based multinational pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) for $160 million in 2022.

In early 2023, the Korean drug CDMO company announced a plan to invest an additional $48 million to convert the 40,000-liter Syracuse plant into a CDMO plant with new ADC lines.  

Once the ADC line expansion is completed, Lotte Biologics will embark on a process to get the new ADC facility certified with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) in March.

Lotte Biologics will then use the Syracuse facilities to provide ADC CDMO services across North America, said Park.

“We will be able to meet the diverse demands of our client spanning from clinical to commercial production, a big advantage (of using our service),” explained the CEO.

NOVEL ADC PLATFORM

ADC, dubbed the biological missile for targeted cancer therapy, is a rapidly emerging class of therapeutic agents that combines the target specificity of a monoclonal antibody (mAb) with chemotherapy.

The global ADC market is forecast to grow to more than $47 billion by the end of 2029 from $10.8 billion in 2023, according to Research and Markets.

Lotte Biologics’ proprietary ADC platform SoluFlex Link guarantees a high production yield of ADCs, which are harder to produce than other antibody therapies due to their complex molecules, which require precise manufacturing, according to the company. 

The company has filed for a patent for the ADC platform.

“We will win by competing on quality, not price,” said Park, expressing the company's confidence in its ADC technology.

LATECOMER TO THE KOREAN DRUG CDMO MARKET

Lotte Biologics is a latecomer to the Korean biopharmaceutical CDMO market,which is dominated by its larger rivals such as Samsung Biologics Co. and SK Biopharmaceuticals Co.

In 2020, Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin picked the bio business as one of the group’s new growth drivers. Since then, the group has acquired a few local and foreign companies in the biopharmaceutical industry to swiftly penetrate the market after setting up Lotte Biologics in 2022.

When it purchased the Syracuse plant, it envisioned becoming a top 10 player in the global CDMO market by 2030.

As part of that goal, Lotte Biologics plans to build three new domestic drug manufacturing plants in Incheon.

The company aims to complete construction of the first plant by the end of this year to start commercial operation in 2027, said Park, adding that an advanced automation system will power the plant.  

CEO Park, a former BMS, MSD and Samsung Biologics alum, was accompanied by Shin Yoo-yeol, the eldest son of Lotte Group Chairman Shin and the group's heir apparent, at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference.

The junior Shin, who also leads Lotte Biologics’ global strategy office as executive director, joined Park in a round of meetings held in search of potential partnerships during the conference.

Write to Young- Ae Lee at 0ae@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.