[Courtesy of SK Inc. ]
The investment was made through SK Inc.’s American unit, SK Pharmteco headquartered in Sacramento, which would become the second-largest shareholder of the Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM). SK Pharmteco has been set up to increase cost efficiency in global markets by promoting integrated marketing as a single brand.
CDMO is a concept of consignment development and production beyond contract manufacturing organization (CMO) that serves other companies to provide comprehensive services. The popularity of pharmaceutical outsourcing has grown and companies are increasingly outsourcing to CMO companies.
CBM aims to create the world's largest end-to-end cell and gene therapy CDMO. The company offers fully integrated pre-clinical through commercial manufacturing capabilities including process development, plasmid DNA, and viral vector manufacturing, cell banking, cell processing, and a full suite of testing and analytic capabilities
SK Inc. aims to supply new innovative drugs worldwide by establishing a global CMO business through the active acquisition of foreign firms, including AMPAC, a U.S. contract manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients in 2018, and Yposkesi, a French cell and gene therapy company in 2021.
Through its investment in CBM, SK Inc. said it has come closer to its goal of becoming a leading CDMO that produces both synthetic and innovative bio-new drugs in global markets by 2025. "We will be reborn as the world's No. 1 cell and gene therapy CDMO through the intensive fostering of bio CDMO," SK Inc.'s bio investment center head Lee Dong-hoon said in a statement.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
