The inauguration ceremony for Healthgen Biotech's new production base in Wuhan New City on June 25. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

The plant-made recombinant human serum albumin (HSA) production base invested in by Wuhan Healthgen Biotechnology Co began operating in Wuhan New City on June 25. The base will feature the world's first plant-made recombinant HSA injection production line.

Healthgen Biotech is based in the East Lake High-tech Development Zone (also known as Optics Valley of China, or OVC), specializing in molecular pharmaceutical research and development. It was founded in 2006 and boasts a world-leading plant bioreactor technology platform. Three of its innovative drugs have entered the clinical stage.

HSA is the dominant protein in the plasma and can be widely used to treat ascites due to cirrhosis, hemorrhagic shock, blood supply after surgeries, and other adjuvant therapies. Almost all the HSA is currently extracted from plasma, which is in limited supply globally, and most of the HSA products used in China used to be imported.

A special type of rice cultivated by Healthgen Biotech can synthesize extremely pure HSA. The new base is expected to churn out 10 metric tons of recombinant HAS and one million preparation products to meet high domestic demand.

The workshops in the base require little manual labor and all the facilities used are highly automated.