Orient Bio Expected to Benefit from Research Primate Supply Shortage

Recently, as the expansion of global new drug development has led to a shortage in the supply of research-purpose primates, Orient Bio’s non-clinical testing (CRO) business is receiving increased attention.

According to Orient Bio on July 20, the company signed an exclusive business rights agreement for primate CRO services with its affiliated company Orient Cam on July 15. The strategy is to strengthen global competitiveness in the non-clinical CRO business by combining Orient Bio's non-clinical testing capabilities with Orient Cam's research-purpose primate production base.

On July 12 (local time), Chinese economic media Yicai reported that the price of research-purpose crab-eating monkeys (Philippine monkeys) has been rising due to the recovery of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors in China. Prices, which once fell below 100,000 yuan per monkey, have now risen to around 200,000 yuan, approaching levels seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this structurally constrained supply environment, non-clinical CRO companies with stable production and supply bases are gaining even greater competitive advantage.

Orient Bio plans to leverage Orient Cam's research-purpose primate production base to promote its non-clinical testing business for pharmaceutical, biotechnology companies, and research institutions both in Korea and abroad. The company intends to respond to a wide range of client research needs by linking a stable primate supply chain with its non-clinical testing capabilities. In addition, Orient Bio is working to establish an artificial intelligence (AI)-based non-clinical platform using the data accumulated from primate non-clinical testing processes. The plan is to create an integrated research support system spanning primate procurement, non-clinical testing, data accumulation, and AI analysis, thereby increasing the efficiency and success potential of new drug development.

An Orient Bio representative said, "The research and development demands of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are steadily increasing and research-purpose primates are emerging as key research resources. Now that we have secured a stable supply chain through the exclusive business rights agreement with Orient Cam, we will actively respond to the diverse non-clinical research needs of our domestic and global clients."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.