Lotte Biologics said it is opting to build its mega plant in Songdo, Incheon.

Lotte Biologics said it had submitted a letter of intent to Songdo International Business District (IBD).

“We submitted documents indicating our intention to build our operation base in Songdo,” a company official said. “The decision has not been finalized, and we will discuss the details with Songdo IBD.”

Industry watchers stressed that if Lotte finalizes the location of a plant in Songdo, the city will likely solidify its position as the nation’s top bio-cluster with representative bio-companies, such as Samsung Biologics and Celltrion, already setting up shop in the city. 

Earlier, Osong in North Chungcheong Province, where the nation’s first bio-cluster is located, is also being mentioned as a possible candidate for Lotte Biologics’ new plant. 

Whether it will be Songdo or Osong, the company hopes to break ground at the end of this year. 

The news comes after Richard Lee, the company’s CEO, announced that Lotte will spend a total of $3 billion on building three mega plants in Korea by 2030. 

During that time, Lee stressed that each facility will be engineered to be constructed with eight stainless-steel bioreactors with 15kL capacities for large-scale commercial operations alongside multiple 2kL single-use bioreactors.

“Through the mega plant, the company will be able to streamline clinical drug substance (DS) and drug product (DP) services in an integrated manner to support many of the discoveries and pipelines,” Lee said.

Lotte Biologics was unavailable for immediate comments.