Sartorius to invest $300 mn in bio material, equipment plant in Korea

Sartorius AG, German laboratory equipment and raw material maker, is slated to invest $300 million in the next three years to build a plant in South Korea. The plan is expected to strengthen the country’s status as a global vaccine production hub as global pharmaceutical giants such as AstraZeneca and Moderna Inc already outsourced manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines to South Korean companies.

The government aims to develop the biopharmaceutical sector as a core business, by removing unreasonable regulations and actively supporting the industry’s production and exports.

BIO-CLUSTER

Sartorius on Nov. 2 signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, as well as the Incheon Metropolitan City government to set up a factory in Songdo, Incheon. Its major clients such as Celltrion Inc., Samsung Biologics Co. and SK Bioscience Co. are operating plants there.

The German pharmaceutical and laboratory equipment supplier plans to manufacture raw materials and equipment such as cell culture bags, cell culture media and pharmaceutical filters, for the production of biopharmaceuticals and vaccines. The company will export those products to the global market.

In September, Cytiva, formerly known as GE Healthcare Life Science, announced a plan to invest $52.5 million to build a cell culture bag plant in South Korea by 2024.

Those investment plans came amid strong growth in South Korea’s biopharmaceutical industry. The country is already home to the world’s leading contract drug manufacturers such as Celltrion.

Samsung Biologics is producing Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, while SK Bioscience is making AstraZeneca’s vaccine. The SK Group affiliate inked a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) order for a vaccine candidate developed by US-based Novavax last year. GC Pharma is in talks with Janssen on vaccine production. Huons Global Co. and Hankook Korus Pharm Co. are manufacturing Russia's Sputnik V vaccine. Production of COVID-19 vaccines is expected to surge once local makers such as SK Bioscience succeed in the development of their own vaccines.

“To create synergy in biopharmaceutical production, related companies should gather and form a cluster,” said an industry source said. “More foreign companies are likely to come to the Songdo bio-cluster centered by Samsung and Celltrion.”

INDUSTRY TO SPEND $5.3 BILLION, GOVERNMENT TO SUPPORT

South Korean bio companies plan to invest a total of 6.3 trillion won ($5.3 billion) by 2024, according to the government.

Among the total, Samsung Biologics is set to spend 4.2 trillion won to construct three more factories in Songdo. Celltrion is slated to invest 1.5 trillion won in a plant and research center. SK Bioscience set aside 270 billion won for a vaccine research center and Prestige Biologics Co. will spend 226 billion won for a new factory.

To help the industry’s growth, the government plans to relax regulations, increase export marketing and provide strategies for global patents.

“The government will also plan to help local companies’ vaccine partners expand from US names to firms in the European Union and ASEAN,” said a government official.

Write to Sang-Hun Oh and Sun A Lee at ohyeah@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.