The deal follows a $1.06 billion U.S. contract in July 2024 and a $1.24 billion agreement with an Asia-based pharma a few months later.
In a public disclosure last week, Samsung Biologics announced that it had entered into a manufacturing contract with an unnamed pharmaceutical company based in the European Union.
The deal, valued at over $1.4 billion, or nearly 2.1 trillion Korean won, is among the largest in the company’s history, and sustains its recent trend of signing hefty contracts. In July 2024, for instance, Samsung Bio closed a $1.06 billion manufacturing agreement with an unnamed U.S.-based pharmaceutical company. At the time, South Korean media outfit Korea JoongAng Daily reported that the deal was the CDMO’s largest since its founding in 2011.
Samsung Bio broke its personal record a few months later, in October 2024, with a $1.24 billion agreement with a similarly unnamed Asia-based pharma. With this deal, Samsung Bio counted more than $3 billion in contract proceeds in 2024, it said at the time.
Buoyed by these high-value deals, Samsung Bio announced Wednesday that it saw a 23% increase in 2024 earnings, jumping from almost $2.6 billion in 2023 to just shy of $3.2 billion last year. Its operating profit likewise spiked, surging 18.5% from around $770 million in 2023 to $920 million in 2024.
As per its earnings report, Samsung Bio counts more than 110 clients worldwide, including 17 of the world’s top biopharma players. Taken together, these partnerships have resulted in an aggregate contract value that exceeded $4.3 billion in 2024.
Looking ahead to the coming year, Samsung Bio is expecting to start operations at its upcoming Plant 5 in South Korea by April 2025, bumping up its total production capacity to nearly 750,000 liters. The CDMO is also planning to open a sixth plant “to proactively respond to the growing demand for biologics” and further increase its capacity to 964,000 liters.
In 2025, Samsung Bio also plans to launch antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) services, according to CEO John Rim, which will help meet the growing demand for ADC-based therapies.
Samsung Bio’s growth comes as the U.S. biopharma industry grapples with the need to look for alternatives to Chinese manufacturers. The BIOSECURE Act—a piece of legislation introduced in January 2024 to prevent biotech firms of national security concern from accessing taxpayer dollars—easily passed the House vote in September 2024.
The bill is currently waiting for its day in the Senate, where it is expected to have strong bipartisan support. According to a March 2024 report from STAT News, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved a similar bill that month, with only one negative vote.
