Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong paid a visit to Samsung Biologics, a contract development, and manufacturing organization under the Samsung conglomerate, in Songdo, Seoul, and committed to investing 7.5 trillion won ($5.2 billion) through 2032 to cement the biotechnology unit's leadership position in the global CDMO market.

According to the firm, it will construct four additional biomanufacturing facilities at the second Biocampus. It also announced that the fourth facility, owned by Samsung Biologics, has begun operating in part.

With the new operating facility, the company will have access to an extra 60,000 liters of production capacity, boosting the CDMO's total output capacity to 4,24,000 liters.

Lee's visit was his first to the company's biomanufacturing plant since the Samsung successor participated in the ground-breaking ceremony of Samsung Biologics' third facility in December 2015.

The fourth plant will be the largest one in the world when it is finished next year, with an annual production capacity of 2,40,000 liters. This fourth factory would cost around 2 trillion won ($1.3 billion).

Samsung Biologics will have a total capacity of 6,04,000 liters once the fourth plant is completely operational, and the firm claims that it will be sufficient to meet around 30% of the world's demand and close the gap with other CDMO companies.

According to Samsung Biologics, the firm has signed agreements with three pharmaceutical companies for the fourth plant's manufacturing of five different products but refrained from mentioning the names due to the confidentiality of the arrangement.

Samsung claims that 12 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies have biopharmaceutical manufacturing agreements with the group's CDMO company, some of them being AstraZeneca, GSK, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Moderna, and Pfizer.

To purchase a 357,366 square meter property for the construction of its second Biocampus, Samsung Biologics and the local government of Incheon, inked a land purchase agreement in July for a total of 426 billion won ($297 million).

The first Biocampus, currently housing the firm's four plants, is around 30% smaller than the second Biocampus.

Source credit: https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20221011000601&np=1&mp=1