Vetter enters biologics ‘sweet spot’ through Korean office
The Germany-headquartered contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) opened a sales office in Incheon, Songdo this week marking its first move into South Korea.
“South Korea is one of the largest pharmaceutical markets in the Asia Pacific region, and houses numerous prominent biopharmaceutical companies,” spokesperson Markus Kirchner told this publication.
Songdo itself – located around an hour away from Korea’s capital Seoul – was reclaimed by the government from the Yellow Sea in the 1990s and has been turned into a business development area.
According to Vetter, Songdo is described as a ‘sweet spot’ by the pharma industry. Among others, it houses Celltrion and Samsung BioLogic which between the two offer over 300,000L of bioreactor capacity.
Vetter’s clinical and commercial fill and finish manufacturing capabilities are located in Ravensburg, Germany and Chicago, US. Kirchner said there are no plans for now to manufacture from Songdo but the office will support Korea firms’ global ambitions.
“We are working with a lot of companies which are serving global markets. Oftentimes we support their global market supply, and sometimes we support their supply in selected major single markets like the US or Europe,” he told us.
“Considering this and the high-value segment we are working in including the correspondent biopharmaceutical companies, the fact that our manufacturing services are based in Europe and the US is generally no major issue in customer discussions.”
The CDMO has been investing heavily in its site over the past few years, most recently expanding a secondary packaging facility in Ravensburg to support increasing pharma demand.
