GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business, a global provider of technologies and expertise to the biopharmaceutical and life sciences industries, has opened a GE Fast Trak Centre in Songdo, Incheon Metropolitan City, South Korea.
The new $7.4 million Centre of 2,200 m2 will support the growth of South Korea’s expanding biopharmaceutical industry by providing hands-on practical training, technology evaluation, manufacturing support, and consultancy services in the latest strategies and technologies for upstream and downstream bioprocessing.
GE Healthcare expects demand for its fifth Fast Trak Centre to be high.
In the past five years the domestic production of biopharmaceuticals in South Korea has by grown 9%.
Exports grew almost 34% between 2014 and 2015, from $589 million to $809 million1.
Songdo is already home to a number of leading South Korean biopharmaceutical companies, and excellent national and international transport links will enable GE customers from other parts of the country, and the wider Asia region, easy access to the services that the Centre has to offer, the firm said.
Kieran Murphy, President and CEO of GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business, said the new Centre in South Korea will bring the firm closer to customers in one of the world’s key bioprocessing hubs, enabling it to share its global knowledge and expertise at a local level.
'South Korea has some of the world’s most innovative biopharma companies, and we look forward to further supporting the growth of the industry here,' he said.
The other Fast Trak Centres are in the US, Sweden, India, and China.
The company also has satellite Fast Trak Centres in Turkey, Japan and Singapore.
The Centres are specifically designed to help biopharmaceutical manufacturers increase their process productivity, reduce cost and enable them to bring their product to market faster.
They are equipped with the latest technologies for bioprocessing in an environment and at a scale that closely replicates the real-life industrial setting.
Worldwide, around 500 customers attend standard Fast Trak courses every year, with training available in local languages, said GE.
GE also offers courses that are built on request and tailored according to customer needs.
1. BioPharma Reporter: Korea positioned to beglobal biopharma powerhouse, says industry association. 25 Aug, 2016 http://www.biopharma-reporter.com/Markets-Regulations/Korea-positioned-to-be-a-global-biopharma-powerhouse-says-CPhI
