Celltrion announced on Tuesday that the company would establish its first plant in Wuhan, China, stating that the facility would be China’s biggest biologics plant. The company hopes to develop and manufacture biologic drugs for the Chinese market at this Wuhan plant.
Celltrion is a biopharmaceutical company that develops, markets, and distributes biological medicines. The company, headquartered in Incheon, South Korea, aims to contribute to the improvement of patient welfare and access to healthcare by providing innovative biologics to the world.
Wuhan possesses a geographical advantage in shipping its products to the whole country. The city also houses over 300 significant research and development facilities making it a fast-growing bioindustry cluster.
The Hubei provincial government gave full support to the Celltrion Group in building a facility that would be able to manufacture 120,000 liters of biologic drugs. Currently, China’s largest facility can only produce 5,000 liters.
The Celltrion Group, through its existing cash reserves and outside investors, assigned a budget of more than 600 billion won ($514 million) until 2025.
Also, underway is the development of a direct logistics network for the company’s biosimilar products targeting China, being the world’s second-largest healthcare market.
Celltrion hopes to sign contracts for manufacturing organization deals with local biotechs.
Since 2017, China’s National Reimbursement List added several biologic drugs with local healthcare policy watchers, saying that the addition may be a forerunner to an increase in biologic drug demand in the country.
The biopharmaceutical company stated it is observing the changing trends in China’s policies, wanting to continuously export its existing biosimilars such as Remsima, Herzuma, and Truxima, in addition to other future biosimilars.
Celltrion recently developed a new type of biosimilar named Humira. The company also intends to target the diabetes treatment market with an insulin biosimilar.
The Wuhan plant would be Celltrion’s first business venture in China, holding a groundbreaking ceremony for the facility in April this year.
