Image Source: Hanmi Bio Plant
It was confirmed that global pharmaceutical companies developing Covid-19 vaccines have tried to reach Hanmi Pharm., as the production capability of Hanmi Bio Plant has drawn much attention.
“At the Hanmi Bio Plant, it is possible to produce annually the vaccine of a maximum of 1 billion doses. It could play a major role of enabling all of the citizens to quickly get out of the COVID-19 threat by efficient mass producing the vaccine as a request for the consigned production (CMO) of the vaccine comes in.” The manager of the Hanmi Bio Plant showed confidence in the vaccine production capability.
Especially, the Factory 2 of the bio plant facilities (a total of 28,211㎡) has been evaluated as the optimal conditions for a vaccine production base as it is fully equipped with the facility capable of culturing and refining 20,000ℓ of microorganism culture. After culturing the colon bacilli in the culturing machine (a bio-reactor) with a height of 10m and a capacity of 12,500ℓ, by going through the process of collection and purification and the others, the gene vaccine (the DNA•mRNA vaccine) can be produced. The Executive Director introduced “At the Factory 2, the culture fluid of around 20,000ℓ can be obtained through the process of culturing the microorganism (the colon bacillus) for one week. In the case of the DNA vaccine, the amount of the inoculation share of 2 million doses can be manufactured. And, in the case of the mRNA vaccine that is some of the first COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the United States, the amount of the inoculation share of 20 million doses can be manufactured.” If these are converted into the annual unit, regarding the DNA vaccine, 100 million doses a year could be achieved. Regarding the mRNA vaccine, the inoculation shares of the vaccine of 1 billion doses a year can be produced.”
The Director of the production at the Hanmi Bio Plant, said, “In order to end the COVID-19 pandemic, from hundreds of millions to billions of people must be inoculated at the same time. The plants satisfying the condition of having to produce the nucleic acid (DNA, RNA), which is the raw material medicine of the gene vaccine by a large amount in a short time period, are a minimum number in the entire world.” And he emphasized, “The competitiveness of the Factory 2 is that it can produce the gene vaccine, of which the demand has been rapidly increasing recently, in a large amount through the culturing of the microorganism.”
Regarding the gene vaccine, he explained that it must be produced through the culturing of the microorganism, including the colon bacillus and the others, in order for the production speed to be faster by 10 times and in order for higher efficiency and convenience.
It takes only several days for the culturing if a microorganism (the colon bacillus) of which the tissue composition is simple is utilized. Besides, the vaccine can be produced right away by re-combining the genes of the colon bacillus cells. That is, if the colon bacillus is utilized, the mass production of the gene vaccine is possible at a maximum of 10 times faster than the method that utilizes the animal cells.
In the situation in which the Korean quarantine authority has been proceeding with the vaccine purchase negotiations with the multinational pharmaceutical companies, the factory manager emphasized, “Signing an introduction of technology contract and increasing domestic consigned production scale are more efficient ways to secure the quantity of vaccine”.
Once the government sets out and makes a contract for the consigned production of a COVID-19 vaccine with a global pharmaceutical company, the Hanmi Bio Plant will perform its role as an outpost for the production.
Source: Maeil Business Newspaper
