Lotte Launches Bio Business... Invests 2.5 Trillion KRW Over 10 Years

Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Lotte announced on the 13th that it will invest approximately 2.5 trillion KRW in the biopharmaceutical business over the next 10 years. At the end of this month, Lotte Biologics, a subsidiary under Lotte Holdings, will be established with the goal of becoming a global top 10 biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) company by 2030.

On the same day, Lotte Holdings held a board meeting and approved the acquisition of a biopharmaceutical manufacturing plant of Bristol-Myers Squibb located in Syracuse, New York, USA. The acquisition amount is 160 million USD (approximately 200 billion KRW). The deal also includes a biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing agreement worth at least 220 million USD (approximately 280 billion KRW), ensuring continued cooperation with BMS even after the plant acquisition is completed.

Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte, stated, "We have secured excellent facilities and abundant human resources at the BMS Syracuse plant," adding, "We hope to quickly establish ourselves in the biopharmaceutical CDMO market by creating synergy with Lotte based on continuous investment."

It is known that Chairman Shin personally toured the Syracuse plant during his business trip to the United States in April. The 420 employees at the Syracuse plant possess technical capabilities to maintain drug quality and stability in large-scale production systems, having obtained Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) approvals for excellent pharmaceuticals in over 64 countries. Based on this, it is expected that the antibody drug business, which requires significant time for technology transfer, pilot production, and regulatory approval, can also be rapidly advanced.

The Syracuse plant can produce a total of 35,000 liters of antibody drug substance (DS). Additional investments will continue at the Syracuse plant to strengthen capabilities such as new product orders and process development. The expansion of the antibody drug CDMO business will include converting the facility to enable production of finished pharmaceuticals (DP) as well as cell and gene therapies. Plans also include establishing a U.S. corporation for operating the Syracuse plant and sales activities in the North American region, where many biopharmaceutical companies are concentrated, as well as constructing a production plant with a capacity exceeding 100,000 liters.

A Lotte Holdings official said, "The Syracuse plant has extensive experience in clinical and commercial production and is a plant that can be operated immediately. We judged it to be the optimal asset for Lotte to quickly achieve results in the biopharmaceutical industry, which has high entry barriers," adding, "In the early stages of the business, we plan to focus on antibody drug CDMO to prove our capabilities as a biopharmaceutical operator and expand the scale and scope of the business."

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