Medipost to expand CDMO business with 10 new clean rooms in Korea

Medipost Co, a South Korean biotechnology company, is expanding its cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) business by building 10 clean rooms and production facilities in the country.

The company said on Monday the size of its new production facilities to be built at its headquarters in Guro, southwest of Seoul, will be large enough to run 10 CDMO projects simultaneously.

“Our facilities will be one-stop service centers for all processes from cell development to clinical tests and product commercialization,” said a company official.

Medipost’s main product is its 2012-released Cartistem, used for the treatment of knee cartilage defects in patients with osteoarthritis caused by degeneration or repetitive trauma.

Cartistem boasts the world’s highest accumulated sales in the stem cell therapy sector.

Medipost, regarded as one of Korea’s first-generation biotech venture companies, entered the contract drug manufacturing business by acquiring in May a 39.6% stake in OmniaBio Inc., a Canada-based cell and gene therapy CDMO firm, for 29.5 billion won, or CA$30 million.

SYNERGY WITH OMNIABIO

Medipost plans to further raise its stake in OmniaBio by purchasing convertible bonds worth 59.1 billion won by the end of 2024.

Its total investment in the Canadian CDMO company will reach CA$90 million with an aim to become OmniaBio’s largest shareholder by 2027, it said.

Located in Hamilton, Ontario, OmniaBio is a subsidiary of the Center for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM), a non-profit organization under the Canadian federal government.

OmniaBio is working on a project to expand its CDMO facilities for cell and gene therapies (CGTs) by 8,500 square meters to reach 10,000 square meters by 2025.

“We will bring in OmniaBio’s drug development and production know-how to Korean plants to offer better services to our Korean clients as well,” said a Medipost official.

In addition to Cartistem, the company is also pursuing clinical trials of its second-generation stem cell treatment SMUP-Cell. The new stem cell therapy product passed its second clinical trials in South Korea last October.

Write to Jeong-Min Nam at peux@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.