Lotte Biologics and Merck KGaA Partner to Boost Biopharma Production
South Korea's Lotte Biologics and Germany's Merck KGaA have signed a partnership to enhance biopharmaceutical production and process development as part of Lotte's "Bio Venture Initiative" at their Songdo Bio campus in South Korea. The collaboration will offer joint lab spaces to promote shared expertise among biopharma companies, with the partnership building upon a previous collaboration in 2022 that involved Merck’s Milliporesigma for expansion and training at a facility in New York.
The following article originally appeared in Fierce Pharma.
South Korean CDMO Lotte Biologics and Merck KGaA have signed a partnership deal focused on expanding biopharmaceutical production and process development.
Under terms of the agreement, the two companies will work together to ensure supplies of essential raw materials, establish a stable supply chain for raw materials and create a support system for the “Bio Venture Initiative” at Lotte’s Songdo Bio campus in South Korea, they said in a May 31 press release.
Previously, Lotte revealed plans to set up the "Bio Venture Initiative" to facilitate collaboration among biopharma companies. The plan involves the operation of joint lab space plus the joining of expertise from companies of various sizes to support biopharma upstarts, Lotte said in an August 2023 press release.
This isn't first time the two companies will have worked together. In 2022, Lotte signed a memorandum of understanding with Merck KGaA’s life science business, MilliporeSigma, related to the expansion and staff training at the former Bristol Myers Squibb production facility in East Syracuse, New York.
Earlier that same year, the South Korean conglomerate purchased the site for $160 million.
“This collaboration with Merck is significant as it represents a win-win strategy that will help South Korea become a global leader in biopharmaceuticals beyond Songdo and Daejeon,” Lee Won-jik, Lotte Biologics’ chief executive, said in the release. “We will strive to make Lotte Biologics a key player in the global CDMO market through this active partnership with Merck."
In late March, MilliporeSigma announced it would pump $326 million into a new manufacturing center in Daejeon, where it expects to create 300 new jobs by the end of 2028.
The investment is the largest by MilliporeSigma in the Asia-Pacific region to date. The project is expected to span process development, clinical research and commercial biological manufacturing for vaccines, cell and gene therapies and monoclonal antibodies.
The Germany-based pharma giant unveiled plans in May 2023 to establish a Korean bioprocessing plant. At the time, the company said the plant would support commercial production for customers in the region.
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