Samsung BioLogics Co., biopharmaceutical business arm of Samsung Group, is set to add contract drug development service to its business portfolio that currently focuses on contract manufacturing of biopharmaceutical products, said the company’s Chief Executive Kim Tae-han.

“We are expanding our business realm ranging from contract drug manufacturing to development,” Kim said in a press conference held in San Diego, the U.S. on Tuesday (local time). “We have already hired professionals who will be in charge of (drug) development, and we are currently under talks with potential clients.”

Samsung BioLogics is South Korea’s leading contract manufacturing organization (CMO) that produces drugs on order from a client. Groomed as Samsung Group’s new growth engine, the company has grown up fast to catch up its bigger CMO rivals Switzerland-based Lonza and Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim.

With the addition of a contract development organization (CDO) business that develops experimental drugs for clinical tests as well as designs manufacturing process for mass production of new drugs on a contract basis, Samsung BioLogics is gearing up to take on Lonza, which is the world’s only contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO).

Currently, the Korean contract drug manufacturer operates two CMO factories in Korea and is ramping up its third facility with a capacity of 180,000 liters. Once the expansion is completed in the end of this year, Samsung BioLogics will be capable of producing 360,000 liters annually in total to become the world’s largest CMO. The company has vowed to become the leader in global CMO market by 2020.

Only three CMOs - Samsung Biologics, Lonza, and Boehringer Ingelheim - are known to be capable of producing 100,000 or more liters of biopharmaceutical products annually in the world.

Samsung BioLogics has achieved what multinational pharmaceutical firms have achieved over 30 years in just seven years, Kim extolled.

Shares of Samsung Biologics finished Wednesday at 233,000 won ($203.76), down 1,000 won or 0.43 percent from the previous session.

By Kim Hye-soon

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