Hubs offers R&D and Manufacturing resources, expertise, and talent.
Globally biopharmaceutical companies look to advance the development of a molecule from the laboratory to the clinic and then to market as soon as possible. This must unfold without sacrificing product quality, process efficiency, or patient safety.
To achieve this goal, companies must navigate the complexities of business planning, cell line development, process development, technology, regulatory, and risk assessment. This takes the right mix of resources, expertise, and talent.
In this context, APAC nations led by South Korea are a standout. Specifically, their biopharma hub aims to provide essential research and development activities in the biopharmaceutical industry.
In many cases, this may be a biopharma scale-up lab with separate areas for cell-line development, media screening, clone selection, upstream and downstream process development, and small-scale production for 200L pre-clinical studies.
The hub also includes large-scale manufacturing facilities and can provide end-to-end biopharmaceutical manufacturing services. This enables domestic and foreign companies to quickly enter the global biologics and biosimilars market while reducing the time it takes to bring their products to market.
Bioclusters offer world-class biopharmaceutical production capacity.
For example, industry-leading pharmaceutical companies like Saint-Gobain, Janssen Pharmaceutical, Celltrion, Samsung Biologics, Dong-a Socio Group, and Binex are all located in the Songdo Biocluster.
In turn, across APAC we are seeing pharmaceutical industry leaders like Pfizer, Novartis, MSD, Sanofi, AbbVie, and Amgen have established global manufacturing hubs, too, where they develop a wide range of products.
Many are engaged in various services, including Contract Manufacturing Organization (CMO) of biopharmaceuticals, or developing and producing biosimilars based on their proprietary technologies.
Contract Manufacturing Organization (CMO).
A contract manufacturing organization, or CMO, helps pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies manufacture innovative drug substances. Their offerings include commercial production, drug development, formulation development, method development, pre-formulation, and registration batches.
The strength of these bioclusters, too, lies in their production capacity. The biopharmaceutical production capacity of Songdo is 560,000 liters going head-to-head with San Francisco (440,000 liters), Singapore (270,000 liters), and Ireland (230,000 liters).
Finally, as biopharmaceuticals are made from cell cultures, it is critical to import and export products before products deteriorate during the storage and transportation process and require cold storage.
This means there is a need for a nearby airport and port for transporting chilled goods and frozen logistics. And we find again a standout — Korea with the Incheon International Airport and Port with their state-of-the-art logistics.
What is Cold Storage?
Cold storage, typically at temperatures ranging from 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit), helps maintain the efficacy of drugs over their shelf life.
An example of cold storage technology, and located within IFEZ is Songdo’s SuperFreeze. https://superfrz.com. They provide sustainable cold chain solutions to Asia’s food and pharmaceutical industries.
Meanwhile, local government efforts are being made for Greenfield sites to create additional biocluster facilities.
What is a Greenfield?
The term greenfield refers to buildings constructed on undeveloped lands where there was no previous development — that was, literally, green. The word green is also synonymous with the word new, which alludes to new construction projects. These greenfield developments are generally made by multinational companies that begin a new venture from the ground up.
Reinforcing this government support, IFEZ and Commissioner Wonsok Yun shared in a recent interview on the Songdo biocluster development:
“We believe that Songdo, which already possesses world-class biopharmaceutical production capabilities, is the perfect match. We are putting our efforts into attracting a bio-specialized complex to build a ‘Bio-Triangle’ connecting the Songdo-Namdong-Yeongjong region. As the companies in Songdo possess advanced strategic biotechnologies, as noted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, I believe it is the most suitable region for the government’s industrial development.”
To conclude, it is expected that within the next decade, the clusters in Korea, and APAC will double to meet the growing global demand.
This will include new foreign direct investments and high-skill jobs with local governments stepping up and providing new support and incentives for domestic and international partnerships.
