The company completed major construction and infrastructure at its Incheon Songdo campus roughly two years after breaking ground, a pace described as among the fastest in the global contract development and manufacturing industry. The 120,000-liter antibody drug production facility will enter commissioning and validation in the second half of this year, while a dual-site strategy linking Songdo with Syracuse aims to minimize global supply chain risk.

An exterior view of Factory 1 at the Lotte Biologics Songdo Bio Campus. [Lotte Biologics]
An exterior view of Factory 1 at the Lotte Biologics Songdo Bio Campus. [Lotte Biologics]

Lotte Biologics has completed construction of the first factory at its large-scale biopharmaceutical production campus in Incheon's Songdo district and obtained official occupancy approval — a pace the company says ranks among the fastest in the global contract development and manufacturing industry, putting it on track for commercial production.

The company announced Monday that it had finished major structural construction at Factory 1 within its Songdo Bio Campus and received final occupancy approval.

The milestone comes roughly two years after ground was broken in 2024, an exceptionally fast timeline for a large-scale biopharmaceutical manufacturing project that must meet complex cell culture processes and global current Good Manufacturing Practice standards. With the approval secured, all physical construction is now officially complete, encompassing site preparation, civil and architectural works, and the full installation of production equipment, piping, and electrical and control systems.

Factory 1 is designed to produce antibody drugs at a total capacity of 120,000 liters, built around eight 15,000-liter stainless steel bioreactors to handle large-scale commercial production demand. The facility incorporates advanced bioprocess technologies including high-titer cell culture and perfusion culture, and integrates an automated logistics warehouse with a real-time monitoring system to maximize production stability and operational efficiency.

The factory also draws on years of operational experience and manufacturing expertise accumulated at the company's Bio Campus in Syracuse, New York. From the design stage, the facility links a manufacturing control system and a laboratory information management system, creating an end-to-end digital production platform that handles everything from order intake to final quality verification.

Building on this foundation, Lotte Biologics is advancing a global "dual-site" strategy connecting Syracuse and Songdo. Under the model, the Syracuse campus supports early-stage projects and clinical-batch production for global customers, while Factory 1 in Songdo handles large-scale commercial manufacturing. The arrangement is intended to minimize technology-transfer risk for customers moving from clinical development to commercialization and to diversify their access to a stable global biopharmaceutical supply chain.

The company plans to begin full equipment commissioning and production system validation in the second half of this year. Through that process, it aims to establish a GMP-compliant production framework ahead of schedule, refine data-driven process operations, and strengthen quality competitiveness in global markets.

James, chief executive of Lotte Biologics, said completing major construction at Factory 1 and obtaining occupancy approval roughly two years after breaking ground "is the result of combining the capabilities of our employees with strategic support at the group level." He added that the company intends to go beyond a simple construction completion and "build a global production platform that organically connects Syracuse and Songdo, and leap forward as the most trusted CDMO partner in the market."


silverpaper@heraldcorp.com