SK Bioscience plans $261M expansion in South Korea with new facility

The South Korean vaccine maker and biotech SK Bioscience will be expanding close to home.

In an announcement on Wednesday, SK Bioscience said it would be constructing a research and process development center in Songdo, South Korea, southwest of Seoul. SK Bioscience will be investing $261 million into the over 327,000 square feet center, dubbed the R&PD center.

SK Bioscience said that the new center is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025 and that its current R&D center in Pangyo, South Korea, will move into the new facility.

The company said in its release that it plans to operate a lab in the center to reinforce its vaccine network and plans it to be used as a research space for the company and for international organizations and biotechs to develop vaccines with SK Bioscience. The center will also play host to other collaboration efforts, such as workforce training.

Jaeyong Ahn

Also, SK Bioscience is planning to operate a smaller plant at the facility. Dubbed a ‘pilot plant’ by the company’s release, it will be a small GMP facility that will be used before the full commercial release of a product. The plant will also be used for research into cell and gene therapies, mRNA and viral vectors.

No other details on this plant have been given.

“The establishment of the R&PD Center will be a crucial milestone for us to advance the entire vaccine and biopharmaceutical industry beyond Korea to the world,” said Jaeyong Ahn, CEO of SK Bioscience, in a release.

While SK Bioscience has been growing over the past few years and inking deals and placing investments in both the US and Ireland, it will be running into stiff competition in Songdo. CDMO giant Samsung Biologics already has a strong foothold in the area — and plans to start construction on a new campus that will include a new manufacturing plant and innovation facility.

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vaccines
biologics
biopharmaceutical
biotech