SK Holdings’ US subsidiary Ampac Fine Chemicals celebrated the opening of its contract development and manufacturing facility with production capacity of 180,000 liters in Petersburg, Virginia, on Sunday.

SK Holdings acquired AFC in July 2018, marking the first global acquisition by a Korean pharmaceutical firm. 

At the time, industry insiders reportedly viewed the acquisition as a milestone for a Korean pharma firm to acquire a 100 percent stake in AFC, a contract development and manufacturing organization that deals with value-added merchandise, such as anti-cancer drugs.

Since the acquisition of AFC, an SK Holdings official said the facility has undergone cutting-edge renovation to gain the capability of manufacturing more complicated drugs.

AFC will produce base ingredients for drugs at the facility. The plant currently has long-term contracts to produce ingredients for four types of drugs.

Virginia State Sen. Rosalyn Dance and Samuel Parhem, mayor of Petersburg, joined AFC employees for the celebration Sunday.

The new manufacturing facility is the plant AFC purchased from global pharmaceutical company Boehringer-Ingelheim in 2016, prior to its sale to SK Group. This is one of AFC’s three plants in the US.


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