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SCM Life Science Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ 298060 CEO Lee Byung-gun, SCM Life Science) will join hands with PBS Biotech Inc., (CEO Brian Lee, PBS Biotech Co., Ltd.) to mass-produce stem cells. SCM Life Science is expected to start preparing for commercialization of stem cell therapy products using PBS Biotech's 3D incubator. 

The two companies announced on the 12th that they will sign a "contract for the development and optimization of stem cell mass production processes" and complete the development of 80 liters of stem cell mass production processes by the first half of 2021. Unlike antibody drugs such as biosimilars, cell therapy products can be produced globally at the 80-liter level.

In a pilot project conducted from last year to the first half of this year, SCM Life Science and PBS Biotech confirmed the possibility of mass production process development of stem cell treatments in SCM Life Science through PBS Biotech's Vertical-Wheel type 3D incubator.

Until now, most bio companies have been producing stem cells for treatment through a so-called 2D culture system that proliferates stem cells by attaching them to the bottom of plastic culture containers. Stem cells cultured in such a two-dimensional culture system have raised a problem that it is difficult to expand the market due to high production costs.

On the other hand, the 3D culture system has the advantage of being able to mass-produce cells with consistent quality characteristics, making it suitable to produce cell therapy products with living cells as the final product.

Furthermore, it is expected that the culture efficiency and proliferation of stem cells will be greatly improved. The mass production process using a 3D incubator is expected to have a shorter incubation time when producing final products than the existing 2D culture process, and the production yield is expected to increase by five times compared to the existing yield.

An official from SCM Life Science said, "Through 3D culture, we can expect to expand production yield and scale per batch and drastically reduce production costs due to the resulting reduction in quality control costs. This is expected to solve high production costs."

SCM Life Science, a KOSDAQ-listed company, is a bio company with next-generation high-purity stem cell therapy based on layer separation culture, immuno-cancer drugs (immune cell therapy) using homogeneous CAR-CIK-CD19, and dendritic cells, and overseas cGMP. The main pipelines consist of treatments such as atopic dermatitis in the stem cell therapy field, GVHD, acute pancreatitis, acute dyspnea syndrome, liver cirrhosis, acute lymphocytic leukemia treatment "CAR-CIK-CD19" in the immuno-cancer field, and metastatic kidney cancer treatment "CMN-001".