Hanmi Fine Chemical, a subsidiary of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group specializing in active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) development and manufacturing, is expanding its services from APIs to “high-tech” contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) services.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in the global demand for high-level, synthetic biopharmaceutical raw materials, such as those used in mRNA vaccines, including lipid nanoparticles (LNP), nucleotides, capping materials, polyethylene glycol (PEG) derivatives and peptides.

Hanmi FC will invest about 10 billion KRW to build facilities for its CDMO services. Last year, Hanmi FC was selected to conduct the Korean government’s project for expanding production facilities for COVID-19 vaccines and raw materials and received 1.6 billion KRW in support of such efforts. Furthermore, the company plans to upgrade these facilities even more by supplementing 8 billion KRW from its own funds.

Hanmi Fine Chemicals has accumulated global competitiveness in the CDMO field by participating in R&D for Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s biologics and anticancer drugs and by successfully passing GMP inspections in leading countries with advanced pharmaceutical sectors, such as Germany, UK, Japan, and the U.S. FDA.

In addition, Hanmi FC is currently in charge of the development and production of raw materials for Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s new drugs, including Belvarafenib (in partnership with Genentech), MKI (in partnership with Aptose), and Poziotinib (in partnership with Spectrum). It is also developing and producing raw materials for LAPSTriple Agonist, LAPSDual Agonist, LAPSGlucagon Analog, and LAPSGLP-2 Analog, Hanmi Pharmaceutical’s core biologics.

Based on this competitiveness, Hanmi FC is currently conducting preclinical and clinical CDMO projects worth 10 billion KRW with 10 domestic and foreign companies, and it is expected to form partnerships with even more companies in the second half of 2022.