SK Bioscience is expanding its facilities to become a hub for global vaccine production.
SK Bioscience announced on June 21 that it signed an MOU with Andong City and North Gyeongsang Province to invest in expanding factories and expanding sites at L House, a vaccine factory located in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province.
The MOU was pushed to expand state-of-the-art vaccine facilities that will reflect the increased demand for vaccines by SK Bioscience supplying COVID-19 vaccines around the world.
According to MOU, SK Bioscience is going to invest about KRW 150 billion won ($130 million dollars) by 2024. It will expand manufacturing facilities of L House, which has the latest vaccine production facilities, and establish new facilities such as messenger RiboNucleic Acid(mRNA) and next-generation Viral Vector.
It will also purchase an additional 99130 square meters of land in North Gyeongsang Province Bio's second general industrial complex, which is being built in Maegok-ri, Pungsan-eup, Andong, near the L House site, to expand the factory to about 161000 square meters.
North Gyeongsang Province and Andong City are planning to actively support to SK Bioscience. Andong City decided to actively implement Andong City's job project, in order to foster professional workers who will contribute to the development of the industry at the expanded vaccine factory, with companies conducting training exercises and local governments partially supporting labor costs.
SK Bioscience is planning to expand its business to expand production of vaccines and establish itself as a hub for global vaccine production.
The company expects L House's COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing facilities to gain momentum as it recently acquired the European EU-Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and its own flu vaccine and chickenpox vaccine are certified as WHO Pre-qualification (PQ).
"In order for Korea's vaccine industry to become a hub for global vaccine production, we need a growth strategy with governments, local governments and companies," said Ahn Jae-yong, president of SK Bioscience. "This MOU is a good example and will make Andong the center of global vaccine production through the L House."
