SK Bioscience, a bioengineering name under Korean conglomerate SK Group, will invest a total of 100 billion won ($88.6 million) over the next four years to ramp up its vaccine manufacturing capacity.

The company said Wednesday it will first plow 30 billion won into expanding its plant at the 62,626 square-meter site in Gyeongbuk Bio-Industrial Complex in Andong by 2020. It plans to inject the remaining 70 billion won by 2022 to manufacture cell-grown influenza vaccines.

The move is to meet growing flu vaccine demand at home and to accelerate its global outreach, according to the company.

SK Bioscience was created as a spinoff of the vaccine business unit of SK Chemicals earlier this month. In 2012, SK Chemicals invested 120 billion won to build a vaccine plant at the Gyeongbuk Bio-Industrial Complex. There, it released SKY CellFlu Quadrivalent, Korea’s first cell-cultured flu vaccine that covers four influenza strains, and Skyzoster, the world’s second vaccine for herpes zoster, a viral disease also known as shingles. It continues to invest in the development and commercialization of value-added vaccines, including those for pneumonia, cervical cancer, gastroenteritis in children and typhoid fever.

The company’s vaccine and blood product plants in Andong would form part of a bio vaccine cluster being fostered by North Gyeongsang Province, which is already home to a number of vaccine research and industrial facilities, including Gyeongbuk Institute for Bio-Industry and the Andong branch for the International Vaccine Institute.

By Kim Hye-soon and Kim Hyo-jin

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