Green Cross Banking On Bioreactors To Develop Biosimilars, Biobetters Faster
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
SEOUL - Following a deal late last year to jointly develop biopharmaceutical products through disposable bioreactors, South Korea's vaccine giant Green Cross Corp. is expanding its collaboration to sell PBS Biotech, Inc.'s bioreactors to Korean companies
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SEOUL - Following a deal late last year to jointly develop biopharmaceutical products through disposable bioreactors, South Korea's vaccine giant Green Cross Corp. is expanding its collaboration to sell PBS Biotech, Inc.'s bioreactors to Korean companies. Green Cross hopes the use of the disposable bioreactors will aid in its development of biosimilars as well as vaccines by relieving the heavy investment needed for early stage development. Ahead of the June deal, Green Cross had agreed with PBS in November 2010 to jointly develop antibody, protein and vaccine biopharmaceutical products through the use of PBS's disposable bioreactors. Green Cross signed an earlier deal with PBS in June to market PBS's single-use bioreactors to about 200 biopharma companies operating in Korea. The company said the PBS bioreactors will help reshape itself as the first Korean pharma producing both egg-derived vaccines and cell-culture vaccines. Green Cross began development of cell-culture influenza vaccines in 2007 and expects to begin production by 2014 (Also see "Korea's Green Cross Strengthens Vaccine Supply Chain For Growing Export Demand" - Scrip, 8 Jul, 2011.). Green Cross said the deal with PBS will also assist in development of biobetters. The company is developing what it believes is a biobetter of Roche's oncology agent Herceptin (trastuzumab). Green Cross is looking for any way to differentiate itself among Korea's biosimilar players, marked most recently by the entry of Samsung Biologics (Also see "Samsung Will Develop Biosimilars For U.S. And EU, But Avoids Emerging Markets For Now" - Scrip, 27 Jun, 2011.). Distribution Side Green Cross will sell the bioreactors in Korea through its medical device company Green Cross Medical Sciences Corp. Under the agreement, GCMS will market PBS' line of bioreactors for R&D and production to Korean companies, Green Cross said. GCMS President Seo Seung-Sam said the single-use bioreactor systems, "will be a significant and cost-effective contributor in helping the [Korean] industry meet the drug and vaccine needs of its own population and for international customers." The single-use bioreactors are used by biopharmas to migrate from costly and fragmented legacy labs to a single-use solution, PBS spokesman James B. Schultz said in a statement. - Peter Chang ([email protected]) |