[Edaily Reporter KYUNG GYEYOUNG ] Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin continued his on-site management visits—following his inspection of the group’s global operations at a Vietnamese retail and food company last April—by touring the site of the group’s biotech business, a new growth engine for the group.

According to Lotte on the 5th, Chairman Shin Dong-bin visited Plant 1 at the Lotte Biologics Songdo Campus in Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, on the morning of the 3rd to inspect key facilities and encourage employees. Accompanying Chairman Shin during his visit were James Park, Co-CEO of Lotte Biologics; Shin Yu-yeol, Co-CEO of Lotte Biologics and Head of the Future Growth Division at Lotte Corporation(004990); and Oh Il-geun, CEO of Lotte Construction.

Having recently received its occupancy permit, Plant 1 in Songdo has completed the installation of production equipment and the setup of key systems, and has entered the practical preparation phase for securing orders and commencing commercial production. Chairman Shin’s visit to the site immediately following the issuance of the occupancy permit is seen as reflecting his strong interest in the biotech business.

On that day, Chairman Shin toured the key process facilities and received a briefing on the status of efforts to secure orders from global clients and the strategic direction for moving forward. He stated, “The biotech sector is a core industry that will drive the Group’s next leap forward,” and urged, “Please do your utmost to ensure that the scheduled plans following completion proceed without a hitch.”

With the approval to operate Plant 1 in Songdo, Lotte Biologics plans to implement a “dual-site” strategy, with its facility in Syracuse, U.S., handling early-stage clinical trials and small-scale production, while the Songdo site handles large-scale commercial production, thereby seamlessly linking the two operations. By applying data-driven process technologies—such as an automated Manufacturing Control System (MCS), digital twins, and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations—from the design phase onward, the company has simultaneously ensured quality stability and production efficiency.

Lotte Biologics plans to begin trial operations and production system validation procedures at Songdo Plant 1 in the second half of the year, with the goal of completing GMP certification—the final step in establishing the facilities and quality systems required for pharmaceutical production—by the end of the year. This schedule is six months ahead of the original plan, and the company intends to launch its full-scale global Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) business based on a stable commercial production foundation.