SOUTH KOREA – SK Inc. of South Korea has committed US$350 million in equity financing to the Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM) as part of the organizations’ partnership announced two months ago to build a global end-to-end cell and gene therapy CDMO.
When SK first agreed to fund the CBM cell and gene therapy effort, the company did not provide a dollar amount. CBM was founded in 2019 and is constructing its campus on a former GlaxoSmithKline site.
CBM plans to use the funds to automate its manufacturing operations from pre-clinical to commercial scale.
According to the company, this includes process development, viral vector manufacturing, cell processing, plasmid DNA, and cell banking, and a full range of analytical development and testing services.
The company will add 700,000 square feet of capacity and hire employees for its site outside of Philadelphia. The Discovery Labs will manage the space.
“We chose to partner with SK based on our shared deep desire to cure cancer and eradicate genetic disease,” CBM chairman Brian O’Neill said in a statement.
“Thousands of people are dying every day, and we have the ability to cure patients by manufacturing these new technologies,” he added.
Dong Hoon Lee, the employee value proposition (EVP) of SK, said in a statement that the move is a step in the right direction for SK Pharmteco’s goal of becoming a top-tier CDMO by 2025.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in stated in August that he hopes the country will be one of the top five manufacturing bases in the world by 2025.
Staying on the CDMO front, ZhenGe Biotech, a Chinese CDMO and R&D firm, has raised US$100 million in a series C round of funding, bringing its total fundraising to US$225 million.
ZhenGe, which provides end-to-end CDMO services for monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), fusion proteins, and vaccines, stated that the proceeds will be used to expand its R&D operations and build several 15,000-liter production lines.
The CDMO, which was established in 2017, has offices in Shanghai and Maryland. Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Sofina led the series C round.
Novo Holdings, Qiming Venture Capital, IDG Capital, LYFE Capital, Junxin Capital, and Cowin Capital were among the other investors.
The company has a 10,000-square-meter pilot production facility near Shanghai, a GMP medium production line with an annual output of 200 tons of dry powder, and a commercial manufacturing base with three 2,000-liter and three 5,000-liter bioreactors under construction.
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