Songdo Bio Medi Park recently attracted $278.56 million in investments, according to Incheon Free Economic Zone (FEZ) authorities.
Celltrion, Samsung Bio Logics and Dong-a Pharmaceutical, the three main pillars of Songdo Bio Medi Park, have received $227 million, $6.56 million and 3.5 billion yen ($45 million), respectively.
Celltrion, the first company to have occupied the Bio Medi Park, has driven the development of Songdo's bio-industry with achievements including the construction of its second factory in 2011 and conclusion of clinical trials for two biosimilar drugs, including rheumatoid arthritis medicine and breast cancer treatment.
Its $227 million investment, which will promote the sales of two biosimilar drugs by Celltrion Healthcare, came from One Equity Partners, the private equity investment arm of JP Morgan.
Dong-a Pharmaceutical and Samsung Bio Logics are also accelerating their efforts to build bio-medicine facilities through attracting investment.
Dong-a concluded a land supply contract with IFEZ last December and received the 3.5 bllion yen investment from Japan's Meiji Seika Pharma in January.
Also in January, Samsung Bio Logics received $6.56 million from Quintiles, the world's leading biopharmaceutical service provider, to establish a biomedical manufacturing facility scheduled to be built by late this year. Samsung Bio Logics has now received more than $20 million in foreign investment.
The company also entered into a joint venture with the biotechnology company
Biogen Idec for the development and commercialization of biosimilar drugs
last December.
Source Text
Source: Yonhap News (Feb. 15, 2012)