PharmaResearch Products, a South Korean company focused on “regenerative” and cosmetic medicines has picked up a plant that manufactures generic injectable botulinum toxin, the same ingredient used in the popular wrinkle remover Botox.
Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do- based PRP said in a press release, that it had invested about $35 million to “secure" majority ownership of the botulinum toxin type A injection (ReNtox) production facility of BioCND, a South Korean Biotech that is developing biosimilars.
The newly built, 6,000-square-meter plant, is in Gangneung-si on the East Coast of South Korea. PRP says it has an initial capacity of 2 million vials of the ReNtox per year. The BioCND plant was completed last summer, The South Korea Herald reported, and the biotech had obtained more than $870,000 in private investments to operate it. No reason was given by BioCND, which is working on several other biosimilar products, for selling control of the facility.
The plant, which has 50 employees, is not currently producing on a commercial scale, PRP said but an application for a botulinum injection biosimilar is under evaluation by South Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), the company said in an email. A GMP inspection of the plant is expected in the second half of this year.
PRP said the acquisition of the plant completes its “proprietary line of facial esthetic products.” It already has a line of hyaluronic acid fillers and Rejuran, a micro injection filler.
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While the facility was built to meet MFDS GMP requirements, PRP said it has designs on the “worldwide facial esthetic market.” But in wider market, PRP will face competition. There are other companies currently working on biosimilars of Allergan’s big-selling Botox for the U.S. market.
PRP also has a plant under construction, slated to be complete this year, for production of some of its other products.