The manufacturing facility with a 500-liter bioreactor targets the global cell and gene therapy market that is projected to reach $36.92 billion, according to global market research firm ResearchAndMarkets.
A CDMO is a company in the pharmaceutical industry that provides development and manufacturing services for partner companies. While many CDMOs offer a full-course development and manufacturing of medicines, some companies work with clients who only wish to outsource certain components of their drug-making processes. A contract manufacturing organization (CMO) produces pre-formulated drugs.
CHA Biotech said that its U.S. subsidiary, Matica Biotechnology, finished the construction of a CDMO facility in Texas. CHA said that various viral vectors including lentiviral vectors, which are the core material of cell and gene therapy medicines, and adeno-associated viral vectors, which are a gene delivery platform used to treat a variety of human diseases. Cell and gene therapy medicine based on the viral vectors will also be produced at the facility.
"Thanks to innovative technologies, cell and gene therapy medicines have higher growth potential compared to chemical and protein-based medicines," Matica Biotechnology CEO Song Yun-jeong said in a statement on May 4. She said that the CDMO would utilize the know-how of CHA Biotech to become the top player in the cell and gene therapy industry.
To beef up its capability as a biopharmaceutical company, CHA Biotech broke ground for a cell gene biobank facility sized about ten football fields in Pangyo south of Seoul in March. The building scheduled to be constructed by 2024 will serve as the company's main research hub targeting Asia's cell and gene therapy market.