April 20, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] SK Biotek, the pharmaceutical unit of energy and telecom conglomerate SK Group, said on Jan. 26 it has held an opening ceremony for its plant in Ireland, the latest attempt to expand its presence in the global market.

The firm purchased the plant in Swords from New York-based pharmaceutical firm Bristol-Myers Squibb in June last year, becoming the first Korean pharmaceutical company to invest in the European country, it said.

The facility, with an annual production capacity of 81,000 liters, currently manufactures ingredients for a number of medicines, including Eliquis, a drug used to lower the risk of stroke by blood clot, according to SK Biotek.

SK Biotek is planning to expand the production site as well as add research and development and marketing talent to make the facility into the firm‘s outpost to tap deeper into the European market, it said.

“We will share our technology and experience with the Swords plant to maximize synergy and strengthen marketing efforts to grow into a global contract manufacturing organization worth over 4 trillion won by 2020,” SK Biotek CEO Park Jun-ku said in a press release.

The launch of SK Biotek’s new plant in the European country accompanies efforts to expand its businesses in the overseas market. Earlier this month, SK Biotek launched a marketing office in the United States.

By Song Seung-hynu and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)