Celltrion said Tuesday it will move to secure new production capacity, including a major expansion at its headquarters campus in Songdo, Incheon, with investment topping 1 trillion won.
The company said the plan is aimed at meeting rising global demand for biopharmaceuticals and strengthening manufacturing competitiveness. The expansion will be carried out in phases from this year through 2030 and will cover infrastructure at its Songdo campus, U.S. production base and other domestic sites.
At the Songdo campus, Celltrion will invest 1.2265 trillion won to expand Plants 4 and 5 at the same time, bringing total capacity to 180,000 liters.
The new facilities will apply automation and smart-factory technology, the company said, enabling production ranging from small batches of multiple products to large-scale manufacturing. Celltrion said this should also speed preparations to produce future biosimilars and new drugs.
To bolster competitiveness in the U.S. market, Celltrion said it has finalized the scale of an expansion at its Branchburg, New Jersey, facility.
It plans to increase capacity there from 66,000 liters to 75,000 liters, securing total drug-substance (DS) capacity of 141,000 liters. The Branchburg site is expected to play an important role in local supply for the Celltrion Group and in expanding its contract manufacturing (CMO) business, the company said.
Celltrion is also pushing to strengthen drug-product (DP) manufacturing. A new DP facility being expanded at the Songdo campus is nearing completion within the year and, once operating, will be able to produce 6.5 million liquid vials annually. Combined with the maximum output of the DP line at Plant 2, total DP capacity in Songdo would reach 10.5 million vials, the company said.
A new DP plant planned for an industrial complex in Yesan, South Chungcheong province, has already had its site finalized, with design work scheduled to begin within the year. Celltrion said that once the Yesan DP plant is completed and a planned expansion of Celltrion Pharm’s prefilled syringe (PFS) production facilities is finished, the group would be able to internalize about 90% of its global DP needs. The company said it expects significant manufacturing cost savings compared with overseas DP CMO production.
Celltrion said it is closely reviewing safety management systems for all ongoing construction projects. All expansion projects across the group, including Plants 4 and 5, will proceed with safety as the top priority, it said.
A Celltrion official said the investment decision was made to respond to surging global demand for biopharmaceuticals while strengthening cost competitiveness and supply stability. “We will build manufacturing infrastructure that covers the CMO business as well, centered on the growth engines of new drugs and biosimilars,” the official said.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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