Daewoopharm, a 50-Year Local Company, to Establish Pharmaceutical Hub in Busan with 50 Billion KRW Investment Plan

Expansion of State-of-the-Art Production Base on Idle Land at Saha-gu Headquarters
Ophthalmic Eye Drop Production Line to More Than Double, Over 100 New Employees to Be Hired

Daewoopharm, a local company that has been headquartered in Busan for over 50 years, will invest 50 billion KRW to expand its ophthalmic drug production facilities.

Following the successful attraction of a large-scale AI data center, the Busan Metropolitan Government is accelerating its efforts to foster the bio industry by securing a major investment from Daewoopharm Co., Ltd. The city announced on June 23 that it would sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the expansion of ophthalmic drug manufacturing facilities at Daewoopharm's headquarters in Saha-gu on the morning of the same day.

With this investment, Daewoopharm plans to establish a state-of-the-art production facility with a total floor area of 6,403 square meters on idle land at its headquarters, and hire more than 100 new employees by 2027. The production capacity for its main product, ophthalmic eye drops, is expected to increase by approximately 60% compared to current levels.

Founded in Busan in 1976, Daewoopharm is a local pharmaceutical company that has grown with Busan as its base for nearly 50 years. The company produces more than 200 types of prescription drugs and demonstrates strong competitiveness in domestic and international markets for ophthalmic eye drops. Recently, it has also been expanding contract manufacturing organization (CMO) orders and working to secure new drug development and formulation technologies.

On this day, Mayor Park Heongjoon personally visited the headquarters to sign the MOU and tour the production facilities. Mayor Park stated, "The pharmaceutical and bio industries are strategic sectors that will lead Busan's future," and added, "I hope this will become a model case showing that companies can achieve sufficient growth in the region without relocating to the Seoul metropolitan area."

Ji Yonghoon, CEO of Daewoopharm, emphasized, "Through this investment, we have established Korea's top-level specialized ophthalmic production facilities," and added, "We will grow as a leading bio-pharmaceutical company representing Busan and contribute to balanced regional development and economic growth."

Including this investment, Busan has secured approximately 3 trillion KRW in investments as of May this year, signaling positive progress toward Mayor Park's goal of attracting more than 8 trillion KRW in investments.

Although Busan's pharmaceutical and bio infrastructure is still lacking compared to the Seoul metropolitan area, the city is seeing continued expansion of bio-based facilities, including the opening of Prestige Biopharma's Innovative Drug Center (IDC) in Gangseo-gu and the completion of Binex's new plant. The city plans to further accelerate the creation of a bio industry ecosystem that integrates research and development (R&D) with manufacturing.

Busan City Hall.

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