Korea’s Lotte acquires Bristol-Myers Squibb New York plant

Lotte Corporation, a South Korean multinational company that is also the fifth-largest chaebol in the country, is buying a Bristol-Myers Squibb bio facility in Syracuse, New York. Based on the reports, the sale deal is worth $160 million.

Bristol Myers Squibb is an American multinational pharmaceutical company, and it will be unloading its manufacturing plant in Syracuse. Its sale to Lotte Corporation also includes all the equipment in the facility.

Moreover, all the workers in the plant will also be continued to be employed after the sale, and this is part of the deal. This means that they will all be transferred and will start working under the said Korean company. Lotte is looking to close the acquisition deal within this year.

According to Korea Joongang Daily, Lotte Group’s board of directors approved the purchase of Bristol-Myers Squibb just late last week. The acquisition is part of the company’s preparations for the establishment of its own biopharmaceutical subsidiary called the Lotte Biologics.

It was previously reported that Lotte had already filed to trademark the said name with the Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service in April. Lotte's second-growth team head, Lee Won Jik, said that since the Syracuse plant has been producing drugs for a long time now, it would be easy for them to operate it once they take over.

Lotte will be upgrading the plant and renovating it as specified in the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) orders. Once the contract is sealed and Lotte Biologics starts operating, it will be manufacturing $220 million worth of bioproducts over three years for Bristol-Myers Squibb. Lotte is also planning to develop its own medicines in the future.

“The East Syracuse site has been an important part of our company’s history and our manufacturing network for many decades, and we are confident that LOTTE will fully leverage the facility, its capabilities and its experienced workforce as it continues to play a vital role for patients around the world,” Bristol Myers Squibb’s Global Product Development’s executive vice president, Karin Shanahan, said in a press release.

She added, “We have taken a thoughtful approach to this decision and are confident this will best support the continued evolution of our manufacturing network and our mission to deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases.”