[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Chun-hee] SK Bioscience is strengthening its vaccine manufacturing capabilities, including COVID-19 vaccines, by expanding vaccine production facilities through large-scale equipment investments.
On the 21st, Gyeongbuk Province, Andong City, and SK Bioscience signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at the SK Bioscience Andong plant regarding factory expansion and the purchase of additional land for expansion.
SK Bioscience plans to invest 150 billion KRW by 2024 to increase state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities such as cell and bacterial culture, genetic recombination, and protein conjugation, and to establish new platform facilities including messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA).
They also announced plans to expand the factory size to a total of 161,000㎡ by additionally purchasing 99,130㎡ of land in Maegok-ri, Pungsan-eup, Andong City, near the Andong plant, which is part of the Gyeongbuk Bio 2nd General Industrial Complex currently under development.
SK Bioscience is currently contract manufacturing (CMO) AstraZeneca (AZ) and Novavax COVID-19 vaccines. Notably, the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing facilities owned by SK Bioscience recently obtained the European Union Good Manufacturing Practice (EU-GMP) certification.
Lee Cheol-woo, Governor of Gyeongbuk Province, said, "Through SK Bioscience, we will develop Andong and the northern region of Gyeongbuk as a forward base for the vaccine industry." SK Bioscience President Ahn Jae-yong also stated, "For Korea's vaccine industry to establish itself as a global vaccine production hub, a growth strategy involving the government, local governments, and companies is necessary, and this investment agreement is a good example," adding, "We will make Andong the center of global vaccine production."
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