SK Group’s headquarters in central Seoul (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — SK Inc., the holding company of South Korea’s No. 3 conglomerate SK Group, said Sunday that it has invested US$350 million in the Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM), becoming the second-largest stakeholder of the U.S. gene therapy company.
SK said the investment deal with the Philadelphia-based contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) brings SK one step closer to becoming the world’s leading CDMO that has a chemical and biologic drug value chain across the United States, Europe and Asia by 2025.
CBM, established in 2019, is known for production of plasmid DNA — a key raw material in genetic bio technology — and viral vectors, a tool used to inject the genetic material into cells.
The partnership between SK and CBM will bring capacity to a starved cell and gene therapy marketplace and expedite the delivery of new therapies to patients, Audrey Greenberg, co-founder of the Center for Breakthrough Medicines, said in November in comments posted on the company’s website.
SK Inc. has been beefing up investment in the bio business, one of the four core areas that it targets as future growth drivers.
(Yonhap)
