To Strengthen Bio Biz
The Samsung Group preparing the IPO of Samsung BioLogics, a bio drug CMO company began to nurture the bio industry in all directions while increasing the capital of Archigen Biotech Limited. This means that the group will organize a bio trio with Samsung BioLogics, Samsung Bioepis, a biosimilar product developer and Archigen Biotech.
According to the bio industry on October 3, Samsung BioLogics will use some of funds raised through the IPO of Samsung BioLogics to increase the capital of Archigen Biotech.
“Some capital increase is needed for clinical tests and the operation of the company,” a representative of Samsung explained. Unveiling a capital increase plan for Samsung BioLogics, Samsung announced that it will spend 400 billion won on the capital increase.
Archigen Biotech is a company jointly founded by Samsung BioLogics and AstraZeneca of the UK with 50-50 equity investment in 2014. In June, the company applied to the US FDA for the approval of the first phase of a clinical test of SAIT101, a biosimilar product of Rituxan, an autoimmune disorder treatment drug. “SAIT101” is a project which Samsung Electronics stopped developing after about eight months as its first biosimilar product in 2012.
Archigen Biotech’s business expansion through financial support is expected to accelerate the Samsung Group’s promotion of the bio industry.
Samsung BioLogics will rise to number one (360,000 ℓ) in terms of production capacity in 2018. In addition, Samsung Bioepis applied for the approval of SB5, a generic drug of “Humira,” an autoimmune disorder treatment drug to Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Samsung Bioepis received the approval of “Brenzys” and “Renflexis” which are biosimilar products of “Enbrel” and “Remicade” and is selling them in Korea and Europe. This means that Samsung is close to building a generic lineup of the three best-selling autoimmune disorder treatment remedies in the world.
On top of that, Archigen Biotech began to develop a biosimilar product of Rituxan, making Samsung’s product lineup more various. In the case of Bioepis, the company does not have a biosimilar line-up of Rituxan due to Biogen, the original developer of Rutuxan. But Archigen Biotech is relatively free in this aspect so the company can build a complementary relation with Bioepis. Some experts say that Archigen may expand its business such as new drugs as it focuses on bio drugs unlike Samsung Bioepis whose main business item is biosimilar products.