[Edaily Reporter Kwon Oh Seok ] As a boom in research and development (R&D) for advanced biopharmaceuticals—such as antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs)—sweeps the global new drug development market, the shortage of non-human primates (monkeys) for research purposes is intensifying. With the price of macaques more than doubling in just over a year due to a surge in clinical trial approvals in China—a major supplier— ORIENTBIO(002630), a domestic biotech infrastructure company, is stepping into the forefront of the overseas non-clinical contract research organization (CRO) market, leveraging its exclusive rights to local primates in Cambodia.

According to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry on the 9th, ORIENTBIO has signed an exclusive contract for primate CRO operations with its affiliate, Orient Cam, and is set to fully launch its global preclinical testing business utilizing its production base in Cambodia.
The core strategy of this initiative is to resolve the “monkey supply bottleneck.” With the recent explosive growth in global demand for clinical trials, the race to secure primates for verifying the safety and efficacy of new drug candidates has become fierce. According to the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), as of last August, the procurement price for rhesus monkeys for research purposes was 188,000 yuan (approximately 38 million KRW) per monkey, a 104.3% surge compared to May of last year.
With China’s annual primate supply (approximately 30,000 animals) failing to meet even domestic demand (over 40,000 animals), global biotech companies are facing a critical crisis.
ORIENTBIO plans to directly address this global supply-demand challenge by exclusively utilizing the 25,000 pyeong primate breeding and production infrastructure that its affiliate, Orient, has built up in Cambodia. The company’s strategy is to complete a “global preclinical value chain” that integrates primate-based preclinical services with its existing supply system—already one of the largest in Korea—for high-quality laboratory animals, including rodents, beagles, and SPF rabbits.
An ORIENTBIO official stated, “With the expansion of cutting-edge pharmaceutical R&D, the stable supply of high-quality primates and differentiated CRO capabilities have become the core infrastructure that determines a company’s success or failure,” adding, “We will use our exclusive primate business rights at our Cambodia hub as a springboard to rapidly penetrate domestic and international pharmaceutical and biotech markets.”