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| Ahn Jae-yong, CEO of SK bioscience, speaks during a press conference at the Korea Press Center in central Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of SK bioscience |
By Baek Byung-yeul
SK bioscience, the country's prominent vaccine developer and producer, will invest around 2.4 trillion won ($1.8 billion) over the next five years until 2027 to become a top-tier bio and vaccine powerhouse, its CEO said Friday.
Among other plans, the firm is set to invest 1.2 trillion won in research and development (R&D), a similar level to that of the global big pharmaceutical companies, to take the lead in the country's vaccine and bio industry.
"SK bioscience has challenged itself to pursue rapid changes and our major projects are on track and on target," Ahn Jae-yong, CEO of SK bioscience, said during a press conference in Seoul. "The next five years will be a period of aggressive investment that will shape the future of SK bioscience, and we will continue to grow rapidly and systemically."
SK bioscience is known for producing COVID-19 vaccines for global companies such as Novavax and in 2022, the company became Korea's first company to officially launch a self-developed COVID-19 vaccine, SKYCovione.
The company recently secured core technology for the development of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines by signing agreements with leading domestic and foreign companies to expand its scope to a next-generation vaccine platform.
As part of an effort to expand into overseas markets, the company will try to build R&D and vaccine manufacturing facilities in global areas.
To that end, the company will invest 2.4 trillion won over the next five years, nearly five times the amount it invested in the past five years from 2018 to 2022.
"We need to be better prepared for the next pandemic than this one. Just as Bill Gates said that when contagious disease outbreaks, we need to vaccinate the world within six months, SK bioscience wants to have one vaccine factory per continent," the CEO said. "Our first targets are the Middle East and Africa. The next candidates are Southeast Asia and Latin America. I think we will have one or two milestones within this year."
The company will expand its contract development and manufacturing company (CDMO) business for infectious diseases based on its proven capabilities in manufacturing vaccines for global pharmaceutical companies.
"We're also finalizing contracts for a vaccine CDMO with a big pharmaceutical company, so we should be able to announce that in the first half of the year," Ahn said.
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