Aprogen Expands Factory to 240,000 Liters Capacity Based on Recovered Culture Medium

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] Aprogen announced on the 26th that it has established the third largest domestic antibody drug production facility by adding two additional suites (production line units) as it is in the process of merging with Aprogen KIC. According to the company, when all four suites installed at the Osong plant operate simultaneously, the amount of harvested culture medium (medium containing antibody drugs after cultivation) per batch reaches 240,000 liters.

A company representative explained, "Generally, considering that the medium is filled to only 80% of the bioreactor's capacity, our company harvests the same amount of culture medium in one batch as other companies do with a 300,000-liter bioreactor," adding, "Aprogen's single batch cultivation period is somewhat longer than others, so while other companies can produce about 12 to 16 batches per bioreactor annually, Aprogen can produce 10 to 12 batches per year."

Aprogen adopts the perfusion cultivation method. Many companies, including Samsung Biologics and Celltrion, use the fed-batch cultivation method. The fed-batch method involves growing animal cells for about two weeks and harvesting the culture medium all at once on the last day. The perfusion method continuously supplies fresh medium to the bioreactor and harvests an equivalent amount of culture medium daily for about 2 to 3 weeks.

Although it varies by product, Aprogen harvests culture medium for an average of 20 days once cultivation starts. The average daily harvested volume is 1.5 times the cultivation volume (about 80% of the bioreactor's capacity). Each of the four suites at Aprogen's plant is equipped with a 2,500-liter perfusion bioreactor. When all four suites operate simultaneously, the total harvested culture medium per batch is 240,000 liters. Accordingly, Aprogen can produce 2.4 million to 2.88 million liters of culture medium annually.

Additionally, each suite at Aprogen's plant is independently equipped with purification facilities capable of purely isolating antibodies from approximately 60,000 liters of culture medium. The company stated, "The average concentration of biosimilar culture medium at Aprogen is 1.6 g/liter, and the purification yield is at least 80%," explaining, "Since at least 10 batches can be produced annually per suite, the maximum annual antibody production capacity reaches up to 3,000 kg."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.