The center provides biopharmaceutical manufacturers with a shared, exploratory environment where they can closely collaborate with Merck to solve their toughest challenges and accelerate development and production of new therapies.
"With a rapidly growing biopharmaceutical industry in Korea and demand for novel and cost-effective therapies worldwide, there is a clear need for innovative concepts like our M Lab Collaboration Centers," said Udit Batra , member of the Merck executive board and CEO, life science. "At our new center in Incheon, our customers will benefit from our deep technical expertise to develop processes for manufacturing drugs faster, safer and more effectively than ever before."
The new center will include a simulated manufacturing environment and offer full end-to-end process development support.
In addition, education on best practices and new approaches to develop, optimize and scale-up processes, and simplify global technology transfer will be available to customers.
With 1,865 square meters of space and more than ten highly trained scientists and engineers, the M Lab will serve local biopharmaceutical manufacturers, spanning the spectrum from multinational organizations like Samsung Biologics to emerging companies developing biologics to treat rare diseases or different types of cancer.
"The new M Lab collaboration center will play a great role in providing technical support and training of Korean biopharmaceutical employees," said TH Kim, CEO of Samsung BioLogics. "Merck's decision to invest in Songdo, fast growing as world largest biologics manufacturing hub with 520 KL of plant capacity by 2018, represents a significant milestone in the development of the Bio Cluster."