Aiming to hit a corporate value of around $15 billion by the end of the decade, Korean CDMO Lotte Biologics has laid out plans to stand up three new manufacturing facilities in the same time frame.
Lotte this week unveiled a land purchase agreement with the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority in Incheon, Korea. With the new real estate, Lotte plans to build out three separate bio plants by 2030.
Each plant will be capable of cranking out 120 kiloliters of antibody drugs for a total planned production capacity of 360 kiloliters, Lotte explained in a press release. The company is also weighing whether to add small-scale bioreactors for clinical material production.
Plants 1, 2 and 3 are expected to be completed in 2025, 2027 and 2030, respectively. Once full-scale operations kick off around 2034, Lotte will boast 400 kiloliters of total production capacity, the company said.
Groundbreaking for the first facility is planned for the first quarter of 2024, Lotte added.
Lotte hopes it can establish the Bio Plant site as a “key hub” that will enable the CDMO to expand its client base, the company said.
Founded in 1967, Lotte Group is Korea’s fifth-largest conglomerate with hands in the food and beverage, retail, chemical and hotel and service sectors. But the company’s foray into life sciences is still relatively fresh.
Back in May, 2022, Lotte threw down $160 million for a Bristol Myers Squibb production facility in East Syracuse, New York, from which the company plans to rapidly scale and expand its CDMO offerings in North America.
The plant handover wrapped up at the top of 2023.
With the plant purchase complete, Lotte Biologics aims to achieve $940 million in annual sales, a 30% operating margin and a corporate value of around $15 billion by 2030, CEO Richard Lee said in a January release.