The production facility is a GMP pilot plant that will help GC Biopharma achieve its goal of internalising several mRNA-related technologies while boosting its related capabilities
GC Biopharma has finished the construction of its mRNA manufacturing facility in Hwasun. (Credit: Darko Stojanovic from Pixabay)
South Korean biopharmaceutical company GC Biopharma has finished the construction of its messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) production facility in Hwasun, Jeollanam-do, South Korea.
The site is situated inside the company’s vaccine production plant and is expected to start operations soon.
The mRNA production plant is a GMP pilot facility that will help GC Biopharma achieve its goal of internalising several mRNA-related technologies while enhancing its related capabilities.
According to the biopharmaceutical firm, the facility can handle every stage of the mRNA production process using its all-in-one production capacity. These capabilities can lower the danger of contamination during transfer and enable quick production response, GC Biopharma said.
Furthermore, a single-use production facility at the pilot plant is intended to reduce the danger of cross-contamination and allow for the simultaneous production of different products.
GC Biopharma R&D head Jae Uk Jeong said: “Construction of the new production facility was a part of our project to move ahead in securing the mRNA platform technology.
“We expect the facility to be widely used in various joint R&D and responses to any future pandemics.”
The company is said to have been working on the use of mRNA to develop its novel therapeutic platforms.
This year, the company established a new mRNA-LNP platform and signed a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) development and option deal with Acuitas Therapeutics.
The biopharmaceutical firm is currently actively conducting research and development (R&D) to go into a clinical stage.
The platform is currently being used to produce an mRNA influenza vaccine and a therapy for succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase deficiency (SSADHD).
GC Biopharma plans to gain technologies and capabilities in the new mRNA production site by testing the efficacy and safety of various vaccines and treatment candidates. This will help the firm to produce drugs for clinical trials in the GMP pilot plant with a strategy to move on to commercialisation and further into the contract manufacturing organisation (CMO) business.
In August, the South Korean firm forged a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Eubiologics for the co-production of an oral cholera vaccine called Euvichol.