Samsung BioLogics said Monday that a new cell-culturing technology called N-1 Perfusion -- adopted for its third plant in Songdo, Incheon, from July -- has proven to increase cell density up to 10 times and cut down on production time by 30 percent.

“With this, we have opened up scaled-up commercialization for our clients,” said John Lim, vice president at Samsung BioLogics, who is in charge of Plant No. 3. 

The South Korean contract manufacturing organization will customize its cell-culturing methods for each client, expanding the portfolio of bio drugs that Samsung BioLogics can manufacture, he added.

The adoption of N-1 Perfusion in a large manufacturing facility like Samsung BioLogics’ Plant No. 3 is a rare case, the company said. The plant’s production capacity is 362,000 liters.

The “N-1” in the technology’s name signifies “the step before N,” with N representing the final stage of cell culturing for the manufacturing of a bio drug. As cells grow, N-1 Perfusion filters out impurities simultaneously. With a longer N-1 period, more cells can grow, leading to greater density and enhanced productivity.

This new method compensates for a technical drawback that had limited the amount of cell culturing that could be carried out due to the accumulation of waste inside the incubator. N-1 Perfusion has been used on a smaller scale so far, to manufacture drugs for clinical trials. But it will also be applicable for Samsung’s commercialization-scale production.

With the addition of Plant No. 3, which began operation in October 2018, Samsung BioLogics now boasts the biggest cell-culturing facility in the world so far, with a total manufacturing capacity of 362,000 liters in a single generation. The new plant had considered the adoption of N-1 Perfusion technology from the blueprint stage, Samsung BioLogics said.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)