SK Plasma, a subsidiary of SK Discovery, said that it has won the national bid to supply blood products to Singapore.

"This is the first time a Korean pharmaceutical company has won a national bid for blood products in Singapore," the company said. "Until now, multinational pharmaceutical companies had monopolized the blood product market in the city-state."

Under the accord, SK Plasma will exclusively meet Singapore's blood product demand for six years from 2023. The company expects that it will receive about $23 million over the period.

SK Plasma plans to use the plasma provided by Singapore's health authorities as a raw material to produce finished blood products such as albumin before sending it back to Singapore.

"This achievement is the first case, in which a local company's technological prowess, management, and production capabilities have received recognition from the Singaporean authorities, which have a strict standard for quality," SK Plasma CEO Kim Yun-ho said. "We expect that the agreement will further elevate the status of expertise and technology possessed by local blood product companies."

Based on this achievement, Kim also stressed that SK Plasma plans to accelerate its global business by cooperating with overseas countries to introduce local raw material plasma and promote consignment production.

"Since human blood is the raw material in blood products, the ability to come up with various strategies, such as securing the plasma of the citizens of the country and producing it on contract basis or establishing a factory directly in each country, are of utmost importance," Kim said. "Based on this agreement with Singapore, the company plans to continuously expand its global business by closely cooperating with countries that need blood product production technology."