Celltrion earmarks billions of dollars to build CDMO plant: chairman

Celltrion Inc., South Korea’s largest biosimilar maker, will spend several billion dollars to build a factory to crack the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) market, led by Swiss pharmaceutical company Lonza, Celltrion founder and Chairman Seo Jung-jin said on Wednesday.

"We'll establish a wholly owned CDMO subsidiary this year and inject some billions of dollars from next year to build a CDMO plant with a capacity of 180,000 liters," he said on Wednesday in a speech at the Korea Investment Week hosted by The Korea Economic Daily.

The CDMO plant, which would be its fourth production facility, will likely be fully operational in four years.

It will also have production lines for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) to meet the soaring demand for Zyemfentra, its subcutaneous injection formulation for autoimmune diseases, and other biosimilars, he added.

His comments came a few days after he announced its venture into the CDMO market at the Morgan Stanley 22nd Annual Global Healthcare Conference last week.

Seo is betting big on the CDMO business.

South Korean CDMOs, including Samsung Biologics Co. and Lotte Biologics Co., are expected to benefit from the US' introduction of a bill, dubbed the Biosecure Act, to regulate Chinese biotech companies.

"Given its impact on Chinese companies, South Korea will become a global CDMO production base," he told the conference, adding that it aims to offer enough diversity of contract development and manufacturing products to compete with Lonza.

EYEING SEVEN MORE YEARS BEFORE RETIREMENT

The 66-year-old chairman said he is dedicated to growing Celltrion to join the ranks of the world's top 10 bio and pharmaceutical companies within the next seven years.

"People ask me when I'm going to retire. I pray for the stamina to work for the next seven years," he said. "I will make Celltrion one of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the world with a pretax net profit of 15 trillion won ($11.2 billion)."

The profit target is somewhere between the net profits of AbbVie, a US pharmaceutical company, and Denmark-based Novo Nordisk. They rank fifth and sixth in terms of net profit in 2023, respectively.

They are followed by France's Sanofi, Switzerland-based Novartis and US pharmaceutical giants Amgen and BMS.

FIVE NEW BIOSIMILARS IN 2025

Seo Jin-seok, Celltrion CEO and the eldest son of Chairman Seo, said it will release five new products next year, adding to the six biosimilars it has rolled out since its launch in 2002.

It has submitted investigational new drug (IND) applications to initiate clinical trials for three ADCs and one antibody next year, aiming to build a portfolio of 22 biosimilar candidates by 2030, he noted.

By Dae-Kyu Ahn and Jeong Min Na 

powerzanic@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.