hankyoreh

A South Korean bioindustry event in Incheon’s Songdo neighborhood on Nov. 18. (Yonhap News)

Celltrion Chairman Seo Jung-jin announced that Phase 2 clinical trials for his company’s COVID-19 antibody treatment are “wrapping up” and that “procedures for emergency use authorization with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety [MFDS] will begin next month.”

Speaking at a South Korean bioindustry event in Incheon’s Songdo neighborhood on Nov. 18, Seo said, “We intend to finish compiling all of our clinical data within the year and use the conditional authorization system with the MFDS to do our best so that the South Korean public can return to daily life within the shortest possible period of time.”

“Around the world, our employees are working hard day and night to personally pick up COVID-19 patients and take them to the hospital for diagnosis and testing,” he explained.

Noting that “many countries are interested in how much of our antibody treatment we will be able to supply next year, not only domestically but globally,” Seo said, “Since there’s a shortage even when the minimum inventory is taken down to its lowest level, we met with the president today and reached a decision to build a new third factory with a 60,000-liter capacity.” He announced plans for the construction of four factories and an increase in production infrastructure to achieve 600,000-liter capacity.

Celltrion Chairman Seo Jung-jin. (Hankyoreh archives)

Seo also said, “What has enabled Celltrion to produce COVID-19 antibody treatments and antibody pharmaceuticals more quickly than other multinational companies is our past production development that has resulted in the world’s first biosimilar products.”

“Based on diligent research into virus-related areas back when the MERS virus was circulating, we have been preparing anyway to quickly develop and launch a COVID-19 antibody treatment that ranks in the top tier globally,” he added.

The same day, Samsung Biologics CEO Kim Tae-han announced the aim of building the world’s largest single-site biopharmaceutical production based on a plan for the construction of four additional plants with an investment of 1.74 trillion won (US$1.56 billion). Kim declared that Samsung would “actively contribute to ‘K-disease prevention’ through successful development, production, and supplying of COVID-19 treatments.”

Following the announcements, Samsung Biologics and Celltrion held an online groundbreaking ceremony for their factory and research institute. It was observed on a platform by President Moon Jae-in, who was joined by Kim and Seo; Incheon Mayor Park Nam-chun; Minister of Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki; Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo; Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo; and Minister of Science and ICT Choi Ki-young.

By Lee Wan, staff reporter

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