Singapore: South Korean company Green Cross is building a plasma derivatives plant (worth $68 million) in Bangkok, Thailand. Green Cross, which signed the contract for the plant with the Thai Red Cross Society in January this year, hopes to complete the facility in 2014.

According to a press release issued by the company, all equipment will be installed and verified, and pilot production will be completed by September 2015. With this contract, Green Cross became the first Korean pharmaceutical company to build a biological products plant in a foreign country.

The plant is being built in Bang Phra, approximately 100 km south of Bangkok, and will produce plasma derivatives, including albumin and immunoglobulins. Currently, only four Asian countries have plasma derivatives plants: Korea, Japan, China and India. Most countries in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East import blood fractionation products.

The contract is significant for Thailand as the Thai government has for long strived to secure its own plasma derivatives production facilities, which will produce products derived from the blood of Thai people.

Green Cross is recognized for its world-class technology in this field. In 2009, the company built the Ochang Plantin Korea, the largest plasma derivatives plant in Asia, which now exports plasma derivatives to over 30 countries worldwide.