How Samsung Biologics is poised to help pharmas and biotechs 

secure a business edge in the competitive biopharmaceutical market

Samsung Biologics has steadfastly enhanced its business capacity and capabilities at an accelerated pace since 2011. From building more plants to diversifying its end-to-end service portfolio, the global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) has helped its clients stay current in order to seize a future edge in the market.

“The biopharmaceutical market is one of the fastest evolving industries where timely adaptation to dynamic market needs is critical for both business excellence and sustainability,” said Jay Kim, a Senior Market Analyst at Samsung Biologics. “The challenge is finding a way to secure enough resources and ute intricate development/manufacturing processes with the utmost quality within a condensed timeline. And this is where CDMOs can offer a hand.”

The global CDMO market has steadily increased in size in recent years, suggesting the biopharmaceutical industry has become more reliant on partnerships with CDMOs. Narrowing down the scope, Kim said the industry’s burgeoning need for contract services may in part be attributed to a CDMO’s end-to-end capability in advancing a raw molecule, either monoclonal or complex, to a drug product ready for commercialization.

“A growing spotlight on therapeutics of complex molecules, such as antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) and bispecific antibody (BsAb), may indicate that the industry would ask for an end-to-end CDMO service more in the future than it used to before,” said Kim.

Samsung Biologics has been an industry forerunner helping global drug makers and developers secure a business edge in the competitive market, both present and future.

The global CDMO in 2023 completed the world's single largest manufacturing facility, Plant 4, and broke ground on building an additional four plants with the first one (Plant 5) expected to be CGMP ready by April 2025.

“The way Samsung is building new plants and adding capacity in the future gives us the confidence that a year or two from now, there will be adequate capacity for us to continue to work together,” said a U.S. biotech Executive, whose company is in a drug-development partnership with Samsung Biologics.

To prepare for a future increase in the industry’s need for robust one-stop services, Samsung Biologics in 2023 strategically invested to reinforce its drug-development platforms, such as S-CHOsient™ and S-Glyn™, to help maximize the viability of a delicate drug development project, especially one involved with complex molecules, of its clients by developing a high-titer cell line.

“It’s extremely important to the viability of the program to be able to generate a sufficient amount of antibodies for a certain amount of money,” said an Executive of another U.S. biotech, which Samsung Biologics helped develop a cell line with a nearly tenfold amount of titer than the previous. “Samsung’s experience going from cell line development to commercialization has been one of the best things about our partnership.”

Samsung Biologics’ preemptive investments to keep up with what drives the industry will continue in 2024. The client-centric CDMO is planning to finish the construction of its ADC facility within 2024 so that it can offer flexible ADC development services.

“Every development made at Samsung Biologics is for clients and for patients,” said Kim. “And it is never a coincidence that our business decisions are well aligned with serving the industry’s immediate and future needs.”

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