Amicogen (CEO Park Cheol), a company specializing in bio-materials and healthcare, announced on July 9 that its subsidiary PurioGen (CEO Byun Jangwoong), a manufacturer specializing in chromatography resins, has signed a strategic exclusive distribution agreement with Zenmindes Biotech Co., Ltd. (hereafter Zenmindes), a leading Chinese company collaborating with major antibody therapeutics firms.
Zenmindes is headquartered in Chengdu, China, and has extensive experience in joint projects and purification solution supply with leading Chinese biopharmaceutical companies such as Sinovac Biotech and Fosun Pharma. In particular, Zenmindes has secured a strong customer network in the Chinese biopharmaceutical market, leveraging its specialized technical capabilities and on-site experience in advanced purification processes (Capture Step) based on antibody therapeutics.
This agreement is significant as it represents the official partnership to accelerate the strategic supply of PurioGen products and their actual adoption among key customers in the Chinese purification market, based on the trust Zenmindes has built with numerous strategic clients. Notably, the rapidly growing Chinese biopharmaceutical market reached a scale of 350 billion yuan (approximately 70 trillion KRW) as of 2024, and demand for purification processes continues to expand alongside the growth of antibody-based biopharmaceuticals. Therefore, this contract is seen as an opportunity for strategic market preemption. Rather than a simple export contract, this structure enables entry via channels already validated at the market center, making it highly likely to generate real demand and expand into long-term transactions.
Through this agreement, Zenmindes will supply a variety of high-value-added biopharmaceutical purification resins from PurioGen to major Chinese biopharmaceutical companies, including high-performance Protein A resins such as 'Puriose ProA HP' and 'Puriose NexPurA', as well as ion exchange resins and hydrophobic interaction resins. In particular, NexPurA is recognized as a next-generation resin optimized for advanced purification process demand in the Chinese market, having demonstrated excellent recovery rates and impurity removal performance even under high pH conditions.
Among chromatography resins, 'Protein A resin' is a core material with the highest unit price, creating significant added value in biopharmaceutical purification processes. Following its supply agreement with Sweden's Bio-Works, which established a stable revenue base in Europe and the Americas, PurioGen is also expected to secure considerable profitability through this entry into the Chinese market.
PurioGen plans to supply high-quality resin products tailored to the test demands of strategic customers and jointly respond to technical support and NMPA (China National Medical Products Administration) certification requirements. Zenmindes will take the lead in product transportation, customs clearance, results reporting, as well as technical consultations and registration procedures with strategic customers.
This agreement is structured to potentially expand into actual resin adoption and long-term supply contracts with strategic Chinese customers in the future, significantly increasing the likelihood that PurioGen's products will be applied to core processes in the Chinese purification market. Through this partnership, PurioGen expects to supply at least 1,000 liters of resin per product annually, laying the foundation for a high-profit business model centered on purification processes.
A PurioGen representative stated, "Zenmindes is not just a simple distribution partner, but a specialized company with a proven track record and trust among strategic customers in China. Through this collaboration, domestically developed resin technology will make a full-fledged entry into the Chinese high-value-added purification market," adding, "This partnership marks an important milestone for domestically produced purification materials to be fully commercialized in China, one of the world's largest biopharmaceutical markets."
Amicogen plans to further strengthen its bio-material internalization strategy through PurioGen's entry into the Chinese market and accelerate its global expansion and efforts to enhance the competitiveness of the domestic bio industry.
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