Overwhelming Capacity

The Samsung BioLogics logo on the side of a building

Samsung BioLogics is moving closer to attaining its goal of becoming a top-tier global biotech company.

John Lim, CEO of Samsung BioLogics, held a press conference at Bio USA in Boston, the United States on June 5 (local time) and revealed the status of his company’s contract manufacture organization (CMO) business and future plans.

“We have decided to move up the start of Plant 5’s operation by five months from September 2025 to April of 2025,” Lim said. Samsung BioLogics broke ground for Plant 5 in April. Plant 5 is being built with a total investment of 1.98 trillion won (US$1.52 billion) and will have a 180,000-liter capacity, the same as that of Plant 3.

According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), one of the world’s top three management consulting firms, the global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) market is expected to grow from US$19.1 billion in 2023 to US$27 billion in 2026 at an annual growth rate of 12.2 percent over the next three years.

“The accelerated completion of Plant 5 will enable Samsung BioLogics to respond to increased orders from customers,” Lim said. “Currently, we have signed production contracts on 12 products with nine clients and are in talks with 29 customers over the production of 44 products.”

The completion of Plant 5 will raise Samsung BioLogics’ production capacity to 784,000 liters, which will be the overwhelming number one in the world. On top of that, the company plans to build a second biotech campus with four plants and an open innovation center in addition to the fifth plant.

In order to preemptively respond to the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) market which has been drawing attention recently, a production plant exclusively for ADC biopharmaceuticals will be built and the plant will go live in 2024. The ADC market accounts for seven percent of the biopharmaceutical market and is expected to grow by 26 percent by 2030.

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