Hanmi Pharmaceutical eyes growth with smart drug production plant

South Korea’s Hanmi Pharmaceutical on Wednesday announced that it would achieve new growth through its newly-built smart drug production plant in Paltan-myeon of Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.

Hanmi spent 150 billion won ($140 million) toward building the high-end plant, which was completed last year. It produces the firm’s major products including Amosartan, Rovelito and Rosuzet which are distributed globally via global drugmakers including MSD and Sanofi.

The Korean drugmaker said it would leverage the smart plant’s operational efficiency to continue to boost its main production activities, as well as step into the global contract drug development and manufacturing, or CDMO, business.

With higher profits generated by the smart plant, Hanmi pledged to continue investing rigorously in research and development to remain competitive in the global pharmaceutical market.

According to Hanmi, the newly-built smart plant makes use of RFID, or radio-frequency identification, systems which uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects.

The RFID system has allowed the firm to accumulate big data on the drug production and distribution process from start-to finish. And this big data, when combined with analytic computing has helped the drugmaker formulate the best manufacturing practices to produce high-quality products at top speed, taking on a competitive edge.

According to Hanmi, the smart plan can produce various forms of drugs such as tablets (double layer, film-coated and uncoated), hard gelatin capsules and poly capsules. Production capacity is also flexible depending on the goal -- ranging from a small amount for experimental drugs to mass production.

To minimize the risk of contamination, the plant has a “split valve” system and plans to introduce solutions to enable real-time process monitoring. The plant is also designed to maximize logistical efficiency.

Hanmi said it plans to combine the capabilities of its smart plant with the firm’s R&D lab located nearby, in order to succeed over rivals in the drug CDMO business.

The drugmaker expects the smart plant and the R&D lab will together provide clients with top-notch CDMO services which includes everything from new drug R&D to development and manufacturing.

“The Smart Plant will change the production paradigm of pharmaceutical industry and give Hanmi a competitive edge to lead the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution,’” said Hanmi CEO Woo Jong-soo.

“We will offer top performance in CDMO with our smart plant, which we believe will give us another opportunity to leap forward.”

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)