Lotte Biologics to break ground on 1st local CDMO plant in 2024

South Korea’s Lotte Biologics Co. is set to start building its first local facility for drug manufacturing next year, aiming for 400,000 liters of global production capacity annually by 2034.

The contract drugmaker signed an agreement with the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority on Oct. 4 to purchase a site of 202,285 square meters, according to its regulatory filing on the same day.

Lotte Biologics will break ground on the first plant in the bio cluster of Songdo's international business district in the first quarter of 2024. By 2030, it will establish three plants in the area with a combined 360,000 liters of antibody-drug manufacturing capacity per year.  

With full-scale operations in place by 2034, the company is set to produce 400,000 liters of biologics per year by that time, including that from Bristol Myers Squibb’s former Syracuse biologics plant. Lotte Biologics acquired the New York-based factory at $160 million last December and is planning to invest an additional $48 million in the facility.

In addition to the factories, the CDMO arm of Lotte Group will build a laboratory to collaborate with bio ventures and operate small-scale bioreactors for clinical trial materials manufacturing. It will also create pharmaceutical industry-academia partnerships to generate jobs in Incheon, the company said.

The new plants will establish Lotte Biologics as a reliable partner and a leading player in the global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) market, the company’s Chief Executive Richard Lee stated.

Local rivals are ramping up their drug manufacturing businesses thanks to increasing demand for biopharmaceuticals.

Samsung Biologics Co., which posted a record of 2.7 trillion won ($2 billion) in global orders during the first nine months, forecast its revenue to increase 20% on-year to 3.6 trillion won this year, according to its regulatory filing on Wednesday. The growth comes with the full operation of its three plants in Songdo and the fourth factory's fast progress in partial operation.

LG Chem Ltd. is also eyeing investments in the bio industry. It secured a 60,000-square-meter site in Vacaville, California from US biotech Agenus Inc. earlier this month and is considering establishing a CDMO plant there. In February, the petrochemical firm built Korea's first pharmaceutical plant dedicated to clinical trials with a 63 billion won investment. 

Write to Dae-Kyu Ahn at powerzanic@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.