Samsung Biologics is expected to continue to post the highest growth rate in the global contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) industry this year after posting record-high business results in 2023.
A consensus forecast for Samsung Biologics’ revenue growth was 22 percent last year, according to a securities industry survey on Jan. 22. This is huge, compared to its rival Lonza’s forecast of 5 to 9 percent and Wuxi Biologics’ 10 to 11 percent. Lonza and Wuxi Biologics are CDMO arch-rivals of Samsung Biologics.
Samsung Biologics was the only global CDMO to raise its own growth forecast last year. In January of last year, it made a growth forecast of 10 to 15 percent, then elevated it to 15 to 20 percent in April and again to over 20 percent in October. The finalized growth rate will be made public in its annual earnings call on March 24.
These three CDMO giants spoke at the recently held JP Morgan Healthcare Conference (JPMHC), signaling intense competition in the market for next-generation modalities such as antibody drug conjugates (ADCs). Samsung Biologics will enter the fray this year with the completion of a manufacturing facility for ADC drugs and the start of production at the manufacturing facility.
Lonza, currently a major supplier of ADC products, announced that it will start operating a new ADC production complex this year. Wuxi Biologics said it has won 24 projects involving ADCs or bi-polar antibodies from various countries.
Lonza unveiled its strategy to focus on the cellular gene therapy (CGT) market in addition to ADCs. While the company currently has only three commercialized CGT products in its portfolio, it said four more will be added within 18 months. The company expects CGT products to account for 70 percent of its commercialized product sales by 2028, up from 25 percent in 2023.
Wuxi Biologics has designated the microbiome market as a new growth driver. “We still have the ‘Win-the-Molecule Strategy’ of aggressively winning early-stage contract development organization (CDO) projects and converting them into contract manufacturing organization (CMO) contracts,” said Chris Chen, CEO of Wuxi Biologics. “As of the end of last year, we had 25 microbiome projects underway, helping developing best-in-class CD3-targeted T-cell engagers (TCEs) in clinical trials.”
Samsung Biologics is also considering entering the market for new modalities such as CGT. Among CGTs, adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are of particular interest. AAVs are a viral vector used as a delivery system for gene therapy drugs.
Samsung Biologics is expected to continue to post the highest growth rate in the CDMO industry this year. Stock market analysts expect Samsung Biologics to grow 17 percent this year. On the other hand, they expect a growth rate of 3 to 5 percent for Lonza and 15 percent for Wuxi Biologics.