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Samsung Biologics orders hit 3 trillion won in historic milestone

Published: 28 Nov. 2023, 16:20

SHIN HA-NEE
[email protected]

A digital render of Samsung Biologics' Plant 5 in Songdo, Incheon [SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS]

Samsung Biologics added five more biomanufacturing contracts valued at $696.9 million in total to this year’s winning streak.

With the addition of the latest deals, orders that Samsung Biologics bagged this year so far surpassed the 3 trillion won ($2.32-billion) milestone for the first time since the contract manufacturing organization (CMO)'s foundation in 2011.

CMO refers to companies that provide drug manufacturing services on a contract basis.

According to Samsung Biologics’ regulatory filing on Tuesday, the Incheon-based company was awarded a new $451.3 million contract and four expanded contracts with an unnamed Asian pharmaceutical company. Those four deals, which all add to agreements that were previously signed in 2019, added an additional $147.6 million to Samsung Biologics' books.

The five agreements pushed up the combined value of the contracts Samsung Biologics has racked up this year to 3.49 trillion won, nearly doubling last year’s total of 1.78 trillion won.

Samsung Biologics is having a golden year, having landed a series of large deals with global big pharma firms including Pfizer, Novartis, Eli Lily and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Nine of the CMO deals the company signed this year are worth more than 100 billion won.

Samsung Biologics’ massive fourth plant, which became fully operational in June, has the world’s largest capacity for a single production facility at 240,000 liters. It is running at a high utilization rate thanks to a streak of incoming orders.

The company is currently building its fifth plant, which has a 180,000-liter capacity and is due to be completed by April 2025. When the fifth plant is operational, Samsung’s total CMO capacity will rise to 784,000 liters.

Samsung Biologics adjusted its revenue forecast twice this year as the various deals boosted its bottom line.

In April, Samsung moved its on-year growth forecast from 10 up to 15 percent, and then up to 20 percent. That figure was adjusted again in October to more than 20 percent, with the revenue guidance standing at 3.6 trillion won.

Samsung Biologics cited its high efficiency in technology transfer, or the process of bringing new drugs to the mass-production stage, which the company says it can complete in just half of the industry's average of six months, as well as its batch success ratio of 98 percent as its fortes in the global market.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [[email protected]]