SK bioscience said on the 18th that it appointed Executive Vice President Cho Bong-jun, who has broad experience in biopharmaceutical production and process technology at LG CHEM and elsewhere, as head of drug substance production.
Cho is a manufacturing specialist who worked at LG CHEM for about 20 years, overseeing commercial production of biopharmaceuticals, construction of new plants, and process technology transfer. The drug substance of a biopharmaceutical is the key component of a vaccine or therapy, and it is important to reliably maintain quality and safety during mass production.
While at LG CHEM, Cho oversaw production of biopharmaceutical drug substances using microorganisms and animal cells, focusing on the Iksan and Osong plants. Microorganism- and animal cell–based production is the representative manufacturing method for biopharmaceuticals currently used by global pharmaceutical companies. Cho is regarded as having contributed to stabilizing commercial production by transferring new product manufacturing technologies to existing plants and optimizing processes.
She led the Osong bio new plant construction project and carried out the build-out of large-scale commercial production facilities and process "scale-up." Scale-up is the process of expanding laboratory or small-scale production to actual commercial production scale, where quality control capabilities are key. In this process, she also gained experience responding to GMP (good manufacturing practice) inspections by major global regulatory authorities, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency (EMA), World Health Organization (WHO), and Japan's Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA).
She later served as head of production at the Osong plant at Binex, a biopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), overseeing contract manufacturing (CMO) projects for global pharmaceutical companies and running the production organization. She also built a gene therapy manufacturing plant and established a GMP system at GenMedicine, gaining experience in producing next-generation therapies.
Cho graduated from Konkuk University with a degree in microbial engineering and earned a master's in molecular microbiology from Sungkyunkwan University.
SK bioscience plans to further strengthen the stability of drug substance production for biopharmaceuticals, including vaccines, and its capabilities in meeting global regulations through this appointment. The company said it will continue to advance its integrated platform for production and process technology by linking the Andong vaccine production facility "L HOUSE" with the Songdo global R&PD center.