How Hugel turns a thumb-sized tube into 25,000 toxin vials

CHUNCHEON, Gangwon Province – A tube thinner and shorter than a thumb, holding what looks like little more than a drop or two of clear liquid, sat locked inside an ultralow-temperature freezer at minus 80 degrees Celsius in Building A of Hugel’s Geodu factory in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, on Thursday.

“That tiny tube is enough to produce more than 25,000 vials of botulinum toxin,” said Seol Hee-soo, managing director at Hugel.

That little tube was among the most tightly guarded assets inside H ...