Andong to establish 175 billion won hemp pharmaceutical hub

Gyeongsangbuk-do province and Andong city have signed a business agreement with Neoken Bio and the Regional Vitalization Investment Development Institute to establish a hemp-based pharmaceutical production hub in Andong. The project, with a total budget of approximately 175 billion won, is scheduled to run from 2025 to 2030.

The facility, located in the Gyeongbuk Bio 2nd General Industrial Complex, will create a complete production chain encompassing hemp cultivation, raw material manufacturing, finished drug production, and quality and safety management. The infrastructure will include raw material manufacturing facilities compliant with EU-GMP standards and finished drug production lines utilizing Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) technology.

This initiative is part of the 1.5 trillion won ‘Four Major Foundries for Future Industries’ project, which aims to build regional production bases through cooperation between local governments and private companies. This follows previous agreements in Pohang for robotics and Gumi for quantum systems. The project seeks to diversify Andong’s existing bio-industry portfolio, which has historically focused on vaccine production through entities like SK Bioscience.