Korean firm plans CDMO business

Hanmi Fine Chemical, an API manufacturing subsidiary of Hanmi Pharmaceutical, has announced plans for a new business offering what it calls ‘high-tech CDMO’ services. It will spend €7.4 million to build facilities for them and expects to form partnerships with more companies in 2H 2022, in addition to the ten it already has.

The company will particularly focus on synthetic biopharmaceutical raw materials, including lipid nanoparticles, nucleotides, capping materials, PEG derivatives and peptides, all of which have been in increasing demand during the COVID-19 pandemic for use in mRNA vaccines. Last year, the Korean government gave Hanmi FC €1.2 million to expand production of such vaccines and raw materials.

The company has also worked alongside its parent in R&D for biologics and oncology drugs and is currently in charge of the development and production of raw materials for its innovative new drugs, including Belvarafenib, MKI and Poziotinib, in partnership with Genentech, Aptose and Spectrum respectively.

Hanmi FC was originally established in 1984 and, in 1993, it built Korea’s first GMP large-scale raw material synthesis plant at the Sihwa Industrial Complex. Best known for cephalosporin products, it now exports to more than 30 countries.