(Health Korea News / Lee Si-woo) SK Bioscience’s headquarters and research center relocation work to Songdo is progressing smoothly. The relocation work is expected to begin as early as the end of next year.
SK Bioscience recently held a ‘topping-off ceremony and safety prayer ceremony’ at the construction site of the ‘Global Research & Process Development Center’ in Songdo, Incheon. The event was attended by key officials including SK Bioscience President Jae-yong Ahn and Supervisor In-CM CEO Hee-jung Jang.
SK Bioscience held a topping-off ceremony and safety prayer ceremony to announce the completion of the skeleton construction and to pray for no accidents and safe construction in the future.
SK Bioscience President Jae-yong Ahn, who attended the event, said, “I feel that the Songdo era, which we have prepared for a long time with the goal of building an innovative R&D hub that will connect the world, is getting closer,” and “With the move into Songdo, SK Bioscience’s steps to become a global vaccine and bio company will also begin in earnest.”
In 2021, SK Bioscience signed a land purchase agreement with the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority (IFEZ) for the 7th District Sr14 area of the Incheon Techno Park expansion complex in Songdo-dong, Incheon, considering accessibility to the airport, connectivity with the existing Andong plant, and the potential for synergy with nearby industrial complexes.
Since then, a global R&PD center is being built on a 34,138㎡ (9,216 pyeong) site in Songdo, Incheon, with a total investment of 325.7 billion won. Once the new construction, which is scheduled for completion in the second half of next year, is completed, the company plans to relocate its headquarters and research institute located in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province to Songdo.
SK Bioscience aims to advance existing business areas by establishing a state-of-the-art R&PD center that covers the entire process from research to commercial production and to create a global vaccine ecosystem (hub) to proactively respond to new infectious diseases.
In particular, we plan to introduce a ‘pilot plant’ equipped with an R&D and process system at the US cGMP level into the new building and expand research projects such as CGT (cell gene therapy), mRNA, and viral vectors, which will be future growth engines.
Glocalization, one of the core growth strategies, is also expected to gain momentum. Glocalization is a global project that transplants SK Bioscience’s advanced R&D and production capabilities to countries with high demand for vaccines but insufficient human and material infrastructure. In addition to collaboration with countries and companies that lack sufficient research capabilities but have a demand for vaccine development, training of bio personnel in those countries is also expected to take place at the global R&PD center.
Once the Songdo office building capable of producing samples for non-clinical, clinical, and some commercial production is completed, SK Bioscience plans to accelerate its entry into the global market by building an integrated infrastructure linking the U.S., Europe, and Korea through collaboration with Andong L House, a vaccine production facility located in Andong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and IDT Biologica, a German C(D)MO company with which it recently signed a stock acquisition agreement.
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