Samsung BioLogics has completed the construction of its third plant boasting an annual production capacity of 180,000 liters in Songdo of South Korea.

The Korean contract drug manufacturer announced that it has finished building its third production plant, which stands as the biggest single-site biologics drug manufacturing facility in the world.

The facility is a four-square building that spans across 118,618 square meters, which is the size of around two football fields, according to Samsung BioLogics.

However, the third plant must undergo validation procedures and test-run periods for around two years before it can begin commercial production. The firm aims to start commercial production in late 2020, it said.

The addition of the third plant — combined with its first plant’s capacity of 30,000 liters and its second plant’s capacity 152,000 liters — raises Samsung BioLogics’ total annual production capacity to 362,000 liters, surpassing those of rival drug CMOS including Lonza and Boehringer Ingelheim.

Based in Songdo, Samsung BioLogics is a contract drug manufacturer under the Samsung Group that creates biologic drugs on behalf of client pharmaceutical companies that place orders.

The company currently has sealed contract manufacturing deals with 10 pharmaceutical companies including Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb to produce 15 different products. Its cumulative order volume sits at around $3.3 billion as of now, it said.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heraldcorp.com)