|19 September 2016|
South Korea
Last week LG Group announced a merger designed to boost its strength in biotechnology. It brings LG Chem and LG Life Sciences, its biopharmaceuticals unit, together in a move designed to increase its share of the rapidly growing international biotechnology market.
Reports in South Korea reveal a key area of its investment strategy will be directed towards red biotechnology, also known as medical biotechnology, as it looks to capitalise on a global biopharmaceutical industry expected to expand to almost $278 billion by 2020.
“The merger reflects LG Group’s aims to nurture its biotechnology business,” a statement released from LG Chem said.
This investment is very much in line with the direction of travel for a number of South Korea’s biggest companies.
“South Korea’s leading conglomerates have arrived at a common destination — biotechnology,” a report in the Korean Herlad said this week.
Samsung is spending billions on its red biotech ambitions through Samsung BioLogics and Samsung Bioepis.
By 2018 Samsung BioLogics says it expects to be the world’s largest contract manufacturing organization (CMO) for biologics thanks to the completion of its third plant – which will bring its total production capacity to 360,000 liters.
“We are pleased with our sustainable expansion through continuous investments and innovation,” said Dr TH Kim, CEO of Samsung BioLogics. “We will continue to strengthen our competitiveness in order to deliver long-term growth.”
