South Korean Conglomerate SK Pumps $350 million in Center for Breakthrough Medicines

The Center for Breakthrough Medicines said it received $350 million in equity financing from the South Korean conglomerate SK to create the world’s largest end-to-end cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization.

CBM will leverage this investment to enhance its fully integrated pre-clinical through commercial manufacturing capabilities with world class automation and infrastructure. Existing and future capabilities include process development, viral vector manufacturing, cell processing, plasmid DNA, cell banking, and a full suite of complimentary analytical development and testing capabilities.

In addition to supporting lab and GMP suite build-out, this investment will also enable strategic joint ventures, sponsored research agreements, and development of proprietary technology platforms.

The Center for Breakthrough Medicines said the collaboration will allow it to bring more than 700,000 square feet of capacity online, and hire 2,000 advanced therapy experts, at the Discovery Labs site in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

“The partnership with SK, Inc. allows us to more fully realize our mission to save lives by accelerating the development and manufacturing of advanced therapies,” said Joerg Ahlgrimm, president and CEO of the Center for Breakthrough Medicines. “This mission is the foundation of our company culture – we always put our partners and patients first, it is the premise of CBM and why we come to work every day.”

Author: Rare Daily Staff