AstraZeneca-SK Manufacturing Partnership
SK Holdings Co., the holding company of SK Group, and global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca will beef up cooperation including the expansion of drug material production.
SK Holdings president Jang Dong-hyun and AstraZeneca chairman Leif Johansson exchanged commemorative plaques to celebrate their successful cooperation and discussed ways to expand their partnership further at a meeting at SK Building in Seorin-dong, Seoul on Dec. 19.
AstraZeneca produces and sells US$22 billion worth of anticancer drugs and treatments for respiratory and diabetic circulatory diseases annually.
In 2017, SK Biotek, a 100 percent subsidiary of SK Holdings acquired a production facility in Swords, Ireland from Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), and in 2018, SK Biotek Ireland signed a long-term partnership agreement with AstraZeneca.
Since then, AstraZeneca has been producing diabetes drugs such as Forxiga and Onglyza based on raw materials from SK Biotek. The size of business between the two firms amounts to about US$100 million a year. AstraZeneca sells its diabetes treatments to about 300 million patients in 98 countries around the world.