South Korea Bovine Serum Albumin Market Trends

• Increased outsourcing of research activities: The trend of increased outsourcing of research activities has been influencing the South Lorea bovine serum albumin market in recent years. Many local pharmaceutical and laboratory research companies are outsourcing their research projects involving bovine serum albumin to contract research organizations located outside of South Korea. This is mainly due to significant cost savings potential from outsourcing. Wage rates and operating costs tend to be lower in countries like China, India, and certain Southeast Asian nations in comparison to South Korea. By outsourcing research services involving bovine serum albumin, local firms can reduce their expenditure on research activities.
• This trend has resulted in a lower demand for bovine serum albumin within South Korea itself. Previously, most of the research activities using bovine serum albumin used to happen within the country. However, as more projects get outsourced abroad, the requirement for bovine serum albumin within the domestic market comes down. South Korean bovine serum albumin manufacturers have to increasingly look for export markets to compensate for the decline in local sales. They are promoting their products aggressively in international markets like the U.S., Europe, Japan, and some developing Asian countries where demand is growing. According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture of South Korea, exports of bovine serum albumin rose by 15% from 2020 to 2021.
• Rising focus on monoclonal antibody production: The South Korea Bovine Serum Albumin market in South Korea has been witnessing significant changes with rising focus on monoclonal antibody production in recent years. More pharmaceutical companies in the country are investing heavily in developing novel monoclonal antibody drugs for treating various chronic diseases like cancer. As monoclonal antibodies require BSA in large amounts during their production process, the demand for high purity grade BSA from pharmaceutical companies has gone up substantially. Many local South Korean pharmaceutical manufacturers have setup dedicated monoclonal antibody manufacturing facilities or expanded their existing production capacities. For example, Celltrion, a major biopharmaceutical company in South Korea, invested over US$ 94.5 million in September 2023 for doubling its production train of anti-cancer monoclonal antibody biosimilars at its Pocheon biologics plant according to its annual report. This has exponentially increased its demand for BSA which is used prominently in the cell culture media during the production of such biologics. Several other mid-sized South Korean drug makers like Hanmi Pharmaceuticals and GenePharma have also increased their capital investment for monoclonal antibody production since 2020 according to their financial statements.

Figure 1. South Korea Bovine Serum Albumin Market Share (%), By Region, 2024