Korean biopharm manufacturing giant expect to secure deals with five of top 10 Japanese biopharmaceutical companies, says CEO John Rim
YOKOHAMA, Japan — Samsung Biologics is speeding up the push to expand its presence in Japan as the Korean contract development and manufacturing organization, or CDMO, unveiled its new contract manufacturing organization brand ExcellenS at Bio Japan 2025 on Thursday.
“ExellenS means a manufacturing framework that embodies Samsung Biologics’ will to quickly supply biopharmaceuticals of stable quality to customers through our company’s accumulated production technology and process standardization,” said Samsung Biologics CEO John Rim in a meeting with reporters on the sidelines of Bio Japan 2025 in Yokohama.
“On top of the core values of 4E — customer excellence, operational excellence, quality excellence and people excellence — we are going to maintain our production competitiveness as a global top-tier CDMO with the 3S — simplification, standardization and scalability.”
The CEO emphasized how crucial the Japanese market is for Samsung Biologics as the company set up its first standalone exhibition booth at this year’s Bio Japan, Asia’s largest biotechnology and biopharmaceutical exhibition held at the Pacifico Yokohama from Wednesday to Friday.
“Our business in Japan is being actively carried out,” he said. “We already inked contracts with four of Japan’s top 10 biopharmaceutical companies. We are in the final phase of negotiating a deal with one more of them.”
As the third-biggest drug developer in the world, Japan’s CDMO market is expected to reach $19.5 billion by 2030 with a compound annual growth rate of 6.8 percent, according to Research and Market’s report.
Samsung Biologics opened a sales office in Tokyo earlier this year, as the CDMO giant has doubled down on its quest to secure a bigger footing in Japan. The company has also been running a program to nurture Japanese specialists by dispatching its employees to learn about the country’s specific business culture since last year.
Rim underscored the company’s continuous expansion of its portfolio, including antibody drug conjugate, or ADC, adeno-associated virus, or AAV, and organoid, noting that Samsung Biologics is negotiating deals with global pharmaceutical leaders as it began the operation of its ADC-dedicated production site in March this year.
“As Japanese companies consider quality as the most important factor, it’s important to secure the track record of numerous approvals,” said Rim, pointing out that Samsung Biologics has earned a total of 18 manufacturing approvals from the Japanese Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency. Of them, 12 were obtained in the last three years.
Samsung Biologics reiterated its goal to continue expanding its share among the top 20 global drugmakers, while strengthening efforts to secure more deals with top 40 global pharmaceutical firms.
With Samsung Biologics’ fifth plant in Songdo, Incheon, beginning operation in April this year, the CEO noted that talks for securing deals across all five plants are well underway with a total annual production capacity of 784,000 liters. The CDMO giant logged about $3.7 billion in orders so far this year.
Samsung Biologics plans to eventually achieve a production capacity of more than 1.32 million liters per year by 2032 with the completion of its second bio campus with three more plants. According to the company, the building plan for the sixth plant is under review for investment approval.
“We are actively reviewing expansion of production facilities both at home and abroad,” said Rim. “We are going to proactively considering securing a strategic production site in the United States to lay a foundation for mid- to long-term future growth and bolster our global competitiveness.”
hwkan@heraldcorp.com
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