- Goal of becoming a global bio & chemical production base

REYON Pharmaceutical (representative directors Sunok Jeong and Yonghwan Yoo) invested KRW 160 billion in the construction of its new chemical plant in Chungju. It is a large-scale investment of KRW 240 billion won, including KRW 80 billion invested in the Chungju bio plant currently under construction. When the new plant in Chungju is completed, it will simultaneously produce biopharmaceuticals, including gene therapy products, and chemical pharmaceuticals, including injections and oral solids.

In this way, REYON Pharmaceutical's decision to invest in large-scale plant construction is interpreted being the winning move for its “second leap forward”. The company made the decision to build a global bio and chemical pharmaceuticals production base utilizing on cash holdings such as profits from the sale of ViroMed shares last year.
A company official said in a statement, "As the results of collaborative R&D between domestic and overseas partner companies gradually bear fruit, securing a new manufacturing site capable of producing more diverse formulations is essential.”

The new Chungju plant is characterized by the fact that it is a modular manufacturing site, and based on this, it has the advantage of being capable of flexibly coping with the production of additional formulations and can increase capacity.

According to the electronic disclosure of the Financial Supervisory Service on the 25th, REYON Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. held a board meeting on the afternoon of the 25th where the decision was made to invest KRW 160 billion in building a chemical plant in Chungju to expand ▲ cGMP certified ▲supply capacity and secure competitiveness. This investment will take place gradually over four years until March 2022, and is equivalent to 72.8% of REYON Pharmaceutical's equity capital.

The design is being done by German company M+W Group, which has successfully conducted cGMP inspections and certifications for many global pharmaceutical plants, and construction is being performed by Samsung Engineering, which built the Samsung Biologics and Hanmi Pharmaceutical plants.

REYON Pharmaceutical purchased a 75.872m2 site in Daesowon-myeon, Chungju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do for the construction of the Chungju plant in 2014. Since then, the construction of the bio plant in Chungju was commenced in earnest in 2017, and the company has now decided to make additional investments for to construct a chemical plant.

An official at REYON Pharmaceutical said in a statement, “The Jincheon plant, which currently produces chemicals, was judged to be insufficient in meeting the demand for increased pharmaceutical production and product expansion in the future, and for advancing to overseas markets, so we decided to build a new chemical plant.” He added, “When the Chungju Chemical Plant is completed, we will be able to maximize sales and profit generation by making forays into advanced overseas markets, and through CMO business and self-production of products.” 
Meanwhile, the production of gene therapy products is focused on the Chungju Bio Plant. REYON Pharmaceutical has the 'exclusive domestic production and sales rights and exclusive worldwide raw material production rights' in relation to ViroMed's gene therapy pipeline.

In addition, REYON Pharmaceutical is conducting strategic open innovation and R&D investments to secure additional pipelines for various biopharmaceuticals. In this regard, the company explained that the Chungju Bio Plant is being constructed to reflect the expandability and flexibility of pipelines in the future.

CEO of REYON Pharmaceutical, Yonghwan Yoo, said, "This investment in the construction of the Chungju Plant will serve as the foundation for our next leap forward to become a global company specializing in bio and chemical pharmaceuticals in line with our company vision of becoming the “BEST till 2023”. He added, “By maximizing the synergy between the cGMP Chungju Plant, which produces new bio and chemical pharmaceuticals, and the Jincheon plant, which has been leading the advancement of REYON Pharmaceutical for over 30 years, REYON Pharmaceutical will cement its position as a core production base for global bio and chemical pharmaceuticals and become a company that contributes to the health of patients around the world.”