South Korea’s Daewoong Pharmaceutical plans to invest 100 billion South Korean won ($74.6 million) to build a third plant to produce its botulinum toxin product Nabota to meet increasing global demand.
The facility is set to be built in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, and is expected to be completed by 2024, according to a release from the company. Construction is set to start in the first half of 2023.
When finished, the plant will give Daewoong total Nabota manufacturing capacity of up to 18 million vials a year, including 5 million vials from its existing facilities, according to the company.
Daewoong's two existing sites have already passed inspections from the FDA, the European Medicines Agency and Health Canada.
The company expects exports of Nabota (marketed as Jeuveau in the U.S.) to jump 123.3% in 2022 versus 2021, with sales forecast to grow at an average rate of 20% through 2030.
“With the construction of the third plant, we will expand the Nabota business in earnest, including entering the therapeutic indication market and the Chinese market, and developing next-generation formulations,” Park Sung-soo, Daewoong’s vice president, said in a statement.
Despite the glowing forecast, Daewoong continues to conduct patent battles in the courts that, if lost, could put the company’s growth projections at risk. The company was recently handed a setback in February when a court in South Korea ordered it to pay $30,000 in damages to Medytox and destroy its botulinum toxin strain, according to The Korea Times. The company is appealing the ruling.
Meanwhile, California-based Evolus is Daewoong's marketing partner for the U.S. market. The company's Jeuveau won an FDA approval in 2019 after a manufacturing-related delay during the prior year.