Hanmi Pharmaceutical said it plans to participate in the 2023 BIO-Europe Spring Conference, where it will kick off its CMO (contract manufacturing organization) and CDMO (contract development and manufacturing organization) business in earnest.

By synergizing its development capabilities accumulated as a new drug development company and its large-scale biopharmaceutical manufacturing capabilities, Hanmi stressed that it plans to grow its CMO and CDMO business as the company's new growth engine.

The 2023 BIO-Europe Spring Conference, to be held in Basel, Switzerland, from March 20-22,  is the world's leading event for pharmaceutical and biotech companies and investors to conduct networking and drive partnerships.

This year's conference will attract over 3,000 attendees from various multinational pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis, Roche, Eli Lilly, and Pfizer.

Through individual business meetings, Hanmi Pharmaceutical plans to actively sign orders by informing potential partners of Pyeongtaek Bio Plant's advanced large-scale manufacturing capacity (up to 12,500-liter).

According to Hanmi, based on finished pharmaceutical products, the Pyeongtaek Bio Plant can manufacture more than 20 million prefilled syringes per year.

The second bio-plant, completed in 2018, still has room for expansion, allowing Hanmi to expand according to new CMO demands flexibly. As a result, the company can quickly respond to large-scale CMO orders from multinational pharmaceutical companies.

Also, unlike other major Korean CMO companies that have facilities based on animal cell culture, Hanmi's Pyeongtaek Bio Plant is equipped with manufacturing facilities that use microbial cultures, making it possible to quickly and economically mass produce microbial-based biopharmaceuticals.

The plant can also manufacture DNA and mRNA vaccines, which have received renewed attention since the COVID-19 pandemic, on a large scale. Based on Hanmi's long-standing R&D capabilities, the company stressed that it could provide "end-to-end services," including manufacturing raw materials and finished drugs, quality testing, and preparation for approval by regulatory bodies.

For example, the Pyeongtaek Bio Plant has been producing and supplying Rolvedone (Korean name Rolontis), a new biologic drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September last year, to the U.S. market.

The plant also manufactures and supplies clinical trial products for Merck's, known as MSD outside the U.S. and Canada, and NASH treatment candidates.

Hanmi stressed that the Pyeongtaek Bio plant is currently producing and supplying biopharmaceuticals that meet global standards from clinical to commercial use is a testament to its proven capabilities.

"We plan to expand our CMO business more aggressively based on our capabilities in mass production and quality control of biopharmaceuticals, which we have confirmed through the entry of Rolvedon into the U.S. market," said Kim Se-won, head of the Development Team at Pyeongtaek Bio Plant. "We will continue to make efforts to build the CMO and CDMO business as a new growth engine for Hanmi Pharmaceutical."