2023 Lunar New Year Round-up: Biopharma in the APAC region

With the Lunar New Year ushering in celebrations for the pharmaceutical community around the world on Sunday January 22, 2023, we’ve rounded up some of the top CPHI Online articles and reports from the last year looking at pharmaceutical markets across the Asia-Pacific region.

Samsung Biologics to buy out Biogen’s stake in Samsung Bioepis 

In January 2022, Samsung Biologics finalised an agreement to buy out Biogen’s stake in the Samsung Bioepis joint venture in January 2022. The deal will accelerate Samsung Bioepis’ biosimilar development capabilities and novel drug development performance. Samsung Biologics will continue to drive expansion in three core biopharmaceutical businesses – continued capacity enhancement, the establishment of growth opportunities in new business areas, and global expansion. 

Chinese markets represents ‘single greatest generational opportunity’ for Pharma 

The Chinese pharmaceutical market has been steadily changing from formerly generics-focused into an emphasis in innovation, driven in part by an aging population and government policies to meet these challenges. This article takes investigates the current biopharmaceutical economy in China, and key trends driving innovation. 

Bora Pharmaceuticals expands development and manufacturing capacity with landmark acquisition 

Taiwanese-based CDMO Bora Pharmaceuticals acquired niche generic drugs developer TWi Pharmaceuticals in an effort to expand their outsourced development and manufacturing services with increased capacity and manufacturing facilities. The acquisition marks a milestone in Bora’s history, enabling them to become the largest pharmaceutical group by volume in Taiwan. 

The Korean biopharma market: Incentivizing innovation 

Biopharmaceuticals in South Korea saw an unprecedented number of out-licensing deals and new drug approvals in the years leading up to 2022. However, the Korean biopharma market has yet to achieve commercial success of the same scale. We explore how the South Korean biopharmaceutical landscape and how drug innovation can be incentivised in a rapidly growing market in a framework dominated by out-licensing. 

Thermo Fisher Scientific expands with state-of-the-art facility in China 

A new state-of-the-art cGMP facility is now open in China as part of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s efforts to address the needs of companies and provide quicker access to therapies for patients in China and the APAC region. The facility offers integrated clinical and commercial drug type capabilities and process development through to sterile fill-finish. Thermo Fisher has announced plans to expand these capabilities to commercial packaging and labelling. 

Lonza start commercial operations in newly expanded facility 

Lonza Small Molecules have expanded their API manufacturing facility in Nansha, China to enable smoother transitions between small and large-scale manufacturing. The expansion includes manufacturing equipment to span the gap between early- and late-phase production.