T.O. Bio and Korean Biotech Create Joint Venture

Thousand Oaks Biopharmaceutical Group has signed a joint venture agreement with a Korean biotech company in which they will boost serum-free cell culture media production, the companies said on Wednesday.Cell culture media, a liquid or gel designed to support microorganism growth for lab use, will be developed to meet commercial demand on an international scale, according to venture terms. T.O. Bio’s subsidiary, JS Biosciences, will play an integral role in the venture as the current leading cell culture media supplier to China.The deal is with WSG Group, and the venture will focus on building a cell culture media production center in Korea with “significant capacity” this year, the companies said in a statement. The center will be Korea’s first local company for cell culture media, with the ability to produce thousands of kilograms in batch capacity.“Before establishing a partnership with WSG, we extensively and thoroughly studied the Korean biopharmaceutical and biotechnology market,” Dr. Yu Chen, vice president of Asia-Pacific commercial operations for privately held T.O. Bio, said in a statement. “We believe this Korea-based cell culture media joint venture will vigorously boost development of the Korean biopharmaceutical industry and extend our global footprints in the cell culture media market.”Added Dr. Shun Luo, chairman and president of T.O. Bio: “There are many world-leading biopharmaceutical companies in Korea. It will speed up our progress in the international biopharmaceutical market and support our global partners to achieve the accessibility and affordability of biologics for humanity.”