Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
Celltrion to stop importing ingredients from Japan
A Celltrion plant in Incheon / Courtesy of Celltrion
By Nam Hyun-woo
By Nam Hyun-woo
Celltrion Chairman Seo Jung-jin / Yonhap
Celltrion has decided to replace more than 20 Japanese ingredients and materials with alternatives from other countries to remove potential risks stemming from Seoul's worsening ties with Tokyo, company officials said Wednesday.
A Celltrion official said it is replacing ingredients, materials and devices needed for its drugs and other products with the alternatives.
Of those materials, the official said the company has secured an alternative for a virus removal filter made by Asahi Kasei Corporation of Japan.
The virus filter is one of the items expected to be affected by Japan's exclusion earlier this month of Korea from its “whitelist” of countries receiving preferential trade status. By removing Korea, Tokyo will place stronger controls on strategic items heading to the country.
Celltrion did not reveal details of other items it is importing from Japan, but the official said the company is replacing them to prevent “risks,” even though other items are not regarded as strategic.
“The virus filter is the only item that is affected by the whitelist regulation,” the official said. “However, with uncertainties remaining over how long and far the trade tension with Japan will go, the company decided to replace other Japanese imports as a preemptive measure.”
Celltrion will use its existing inventory of Japanese ingredients and materials first and then make orders with firms in other biopharmaceutical powerhouses such as Germany and the U.S. For the virus filter, Celltrion said it has already secured a one-year stockpile of alternatives.
The virus removal filter is an essential device to prevent contamination of biological products. Along with Asahi Kasei, Merck, Sartorius and several other foreign firms are supplying virus filtration systems to Korean firms.
GC Pharma, which also imports virus filters from Japan, is reportedly considering sourcing them from other countries.