Samsung Biologics inaugurates the largest biopharma CDMO plant in the world

Samsung Biologics just opened the largest Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) plant in the world, and it is located in Incheon, South Korea. The biotech firm is now hoping that through its new pharmaceutical facility, it will be able to replicate the success of its chip manufacturing business.

Samsung Biologics inaugurated the plant on Tuesday, Oct. 11, and it was attended by the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, Lee Jae Yong. The facility is now the biopharma firm’s fourth factory.

The company usually has an annual production capacity of 240,000 liters and this will now become 420,000 liters as the new plant starts its partial operation. The construction of the Songdo plant began in 2020, and it is expected to go into full operation next year.

As per Korea Joongang Daily, once it runs in full force, Samsung Biologics is expecting to further increase its production capacity up to 620,000 liters. The company said this amount is equivalent to almost 30% of the global contract manufacturing capacity for biopharma firms.

With this volume, Samsung Biologics defeated Switzerland’s Lonza Group AG and Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

In any case, Samsung invested KRW2 trillion or about $1.4 billion for the construction of its new Songdo plant, and in the future, the company may spend a total of KRW7 trillion on building its fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth plants in the same region but on another site. Samsung Biologics is expanding its facilities to accommodate more orders from its major global clients, such as Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Moderna, Eli Lilly, and AstraZeneca.

Meanwhile, the Samsung chief met with the senior executives of Samsung Biologics and Samsung Bioepis after the inauguration ceremony for the Songdo factory. They talked about mid and long-term strategies to improve competitiveness as CDMO and a biosimilar manufacturer.

The Korea Times reported that at the meeting, Lee Jae Yong vowed to put in a new investment of KRW7.5 trillion or $5.2 billion to widen the gap from its rivals in the bio business and move ahead to become the leader in the industry. He said that Samsung will release the fund for its biotech unit by 2032.