To Become a Top Global CDMO
SK Pharmteco, SK Inc.’s contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) affiliate, announced its “Vision 2025” growth strategy at the 40th J.P Morgan HealthCare Conference on Jan. 10.
SK Pharmteco took part in the Private Track for non-public companies at its first J.P Morgan HealthCare Conference. Private Track is a session that global investors closely watch as many participants have gone public in the same year or the year following the conference. SK Pharmteco is the only Korean company to be invited to this year’s Private Track and has been recognized for its potential investment value in the global market. SK Inc. is planning for a pre-IPO this year, working towards a more specific plan to go public.
SK Pharmteco, established in 2019 as a holding company of SK Inc.’s CDMO business, has grown into a leading global CDMO with eight manufacturing sites and five R&D centers in the U.S., Europe and Asia through three major M&As and combined global operations of Swords Manufacturing Plant in Ireland, AMPAC Fine Chemicals in the U.S., Yposkesi in France and SK biotek in Korea. It produces a variety of blockbuster drugs including oncology, diabetes, and anti-viral, and recently has expanded its business to cell and gene therapy, an innovative bio drugs sector.
Based on the steadily growing small molecule APIs business, SK Pharmteco plans to establish a cycle of growth that fosters its new growth driver, cell and gene therapy business, rapidly.
Aslam Malik, CEO of SK Pharmteco, shared the company’s past performances and its vision to rise to become a top 5 global CDMO.
"In 2021, SK Pharmteco’s forecasted sales reached an all-time high of US$740 million, a whopping 7.5 times growth from 2017 when we began our global expansion process," said Malik. "With the sustained growth of the small molecule APIs, SK Pharmteco is aiming to become a CDMO with annual sales of US$2 billion (2.5 trillion won) by 2025.”
Malik emphasized SK Pharmteco’s combined U.S.-Europe-Asia manufacturing capacity, a strong track record of regulatory compliance, and outstanding pipeline based on long-term contracts as its differentiating factors that earned the trust of global pharmaceutical manufacturers. With consistent investment, SK Pharmteco plans to expand its global manufacturing capacity by 50% from the current 1,000㎥ by 2025.
AMPAC Fine Chemicals, in particular, has been recognized for its excellent compliance capacity and is utilized by the FDA as a training site since 2014. Long-term contracts of high-value drugs are constantly increasing thanks to these strengths, and the total market value of the small molecule APIs pipeline manufactured by SK Pharmteco is expected to increase to US$2.1 billion in 2025 from US$1.4 billion in 2021. The customers of SK Pharmteco are global companies in the U.S. and Europe and make up 65% and 30% of its customer composition, respectively.
Aslam Malik named cell and gene therapy as the growth engine of SK Pharmteco, stating that the company had quickly secured manufacturing capacity in the U.S. and Europe by acquiring Yposkesi, a leading French CDMO in gene and cell therapy, and through an investment in the Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM) in the U.S. "The market value of the two companies’ combined pipelines is approximately US$2 billion, and we expect to see it rise to US$6 billion in 2025 with the expansion of manufacturing capacity and customers,” he said.
Yposkesi is waiting for the completion of its second manufacturing plant in 2023, which will double its capacity to 100,000 sq. ft. CBM is also expected to have the world’s largest single cell and gene therapy manufacturing site capacity of 700,000 sq. ft. in 2025.
Lee Dong-hun, executive vice president at SK Inc. commented, “SK Pharmteco will hold an advantage in the global industry with its high-quality manufacturing capacity within the leading countries. SK Inc. will be supporting the successful commercialization of the innovative new drugs business, and will be mapping out a more specific plan for an IPO.”