'One-Stop Service' Samsung Bio, Betting on Self-Developed Cell Lines to Boost Productivity

Yang Eun-young, head of the Contract Development Organization (CDO) Business Team at Samsung Biologics (left in the photo), and John Gill, head of the Cell Line Development Division in the CDO R&D Team, are explaining S-Choice at the in-house developed cell line launch event held online on the 5th.

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] Samsung Biologics unveiled its self-developed cell line on the 5th to accelerate the development and production process of biopharmaceuticals. The company expects this to help achieve its goal of becoming the number one in the global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) market by combining its core business of biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing (CMO) with its recently focused contract development (CDO) business into a 'one-stop service.'

On the 5th, Samsung Biologics officially announced its self-developed cell line, ‘S-Choice,’ online. A cell line is a cell that proliferates massively outside the body to produce the desired antibody drugs. S-Choice is characterized by proliferating faster and surviving longer than other cell lines.

The cell expression amount is about twice the industry average (approximately 3?4g per liter), and the survival rate is over 90% up to 21 days in serum culture, which is higher than the industry average (14 days), making commercial production of biopharmaceutical candidates more active. A Samsung Biologics official said, "The higher the cell survival rate, the better the selection of high-quality cell lines for mass production, which in turn increases productivity."

Although Samsung Biologics entered the CDO business as a latecomer in 2017, its growth rate is fast. It has carried out 42 projects until last year and set a goal to add at least 18 more this year. The trend in Samsung Biologics’ CDO business is that existing customers are increasingly commissioning additional material development. More than half of the total 55 cases, 29, are renewals.

Samsung Biologics’ strategy is to generate stable profits in its core CMO business through the CDO business. This year, the goal is to secure more than 60% of the total operating volume of its third plant, which is the world’s largest single factory with a capacity of 180,000 liters. To this end, it plans to sign 18 CMO production contracts within the year, totaling 47 contracts.

Yang Eun-young, Executive Director and Head of the CDO Business Team, stated at a press conference held in San Francisco, USA, in January that they plan to increase the volume linked from CMO to CDO to 30% by 2030 and 50% by 2035. This is due to creating the world’s first business structure that operates all new drug development processes?from initial cell line development to clinical sample production, clinical trials and approval, and commercial production?in a one-stop manner.

Samsung Biologics plans to provide S-Choice at a competitive price without milestone (stepwise technology fees) or royalty costs. At the S-Choice online launch event, Executive Director Yang said, "We will offer S-Choice at a relatively low price. Customers only need to pay a small license fee at the IND stage, after which they can freely use the cell lines developed with S-Choice without any further restrictions."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.