Samsung Biologics, First CMO with Novartis... Leap to Global Top Tier (Comprehensive)

First Contract with Industry No. 5 Novartis
More Than Half of Top 10 Companies Contracted

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] Samsung Biologics has come closer to its goal of becoming a global top-tier company by securing more than half of the top 10 global big pharma companies as clients.

Samsung Biologics announced on the 7th that it signed a letter of intent for a contract worth $81 million (approximately 100.5 billion KRW) for contract manufacturing organization (CMO) of biopharmaceuticals with Novartis on the 4th.

Novartis is a global pharmaceutical company ranked 5th worldwide in sales last year, but it had not previously signed a CMO contract with Samsung Biologics. A Samsung Biologics official said, "This letter of intent is the first contract between the two companies," adding, "We hope to continue a cooperative relationship in the future through this contract."

With this contract included, Samsung Biologics' cumulative orders this year have reached $402 million (approximately 497.4 billion KRW). Earlier, in February and March, it succeeded in additional orders worth $104 million through volume changes in existing contracts with GSK, followed by contracts worth $92.04 million with Eli Lilly in March and $124.1 million with a European pharmaceutical company in April, achieving this performance.

As a result, Samsung Biologics has secured more than half of the top 10 global big pharma companies by sales as clients. According to GlobalData, last year's big pharma sales ranking was Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Roche, AbbVie, Novartis, Bayer, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), and Sanofi. Samsung Biologics had previously collaborated with Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Merck, GSK, and BMS, and has now succeeded in securing Novartis as a client as well.

However, considering that this only applies to cases where the contract with the company was disclosed through public announcements, the number of contracts Samsung Biologics has secured with big pharma companies may be further revealed later. In the bio industry, it is common not to disclose contract partners for a certain period due to business confidentiality. For example, the $124.1 million (approximately 154.1 billion KRW) contract announced by Samsung Biologics in April only revealed that the partner was a European pharmaceutical company, and the contract partner will not be disclosed until August due to confidentiality reasons.

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