Meeting Global Big Pharma, Lee Jae-yong Says "Bio as the Second Semiconductor"

Following semiconductors, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who has pledged to make the bio industry the 'second semiconductor miracle,' held a series of meetings with global company leaders driving the global bio market, including major global big pharma companies and bio ventures, in the U.S. East Coast, the world's largest bio cluster.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (center) is conversing with American businesspeople at the Korea-US Business Roundtable held last month at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC, hosted by President Yoon Suk-yeol.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Samsung Electronics announced on the 7th that Chairman Lee recently met individually with ▲Joaquin Duato, CEO of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) ▲Giovanni Caforio, CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) ▲Noubar Afeyan, CEO of Flagship Pioneering ▲Christopher Viehbacher, CEO of Biogen ▲Kevin Ali, CEO of Organon, to discuss ways to strengthen competitiveness in the bio business and explore new business opportunities through mutual cooperation.

Each company is a major player in the global bio industry closely related to Samsung’s bio industry, which consists of Samsung Biologics and Samsung Bioepis. Johnson & Johnson, with a history spanning 140 years, is an undisputed global top-tier pharmaceutical and bio company and a key customer of Samsung. BMS also laid the foundation for Samsung’s bio business growth by placing its first contract manufacturing organization (CMO) order with Samsung Biologics in 2013.

Noubar Afeyan, who leads the venture capital (VC) firm Flagship Pioneering, is a co-founder and chairman of the board of Moderna. He played a key role in Samsung Biologics’ CMO production of Moderna’s messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine, contributing to overcoming the COVID-19 crisis in Korea. Additionally, he is working together with Samsung to discover and nurture promising bio ventures.

Biogen co-founded Samsung Bioepis with Samsung Biologics in 2012 and sold all its shares in Samsung Bioepis to Samsung Biologics in April last year, but it continues to maintain a close relationship by handling the distribution and sales of Samsung Bioepis’ autoimmune disease biosimilars in Europe.

Last October, Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, attended the completion ceremony of Samsung Biologics' Plant 4 and applauded. Ko Han-seung, President of Samsung Bioepis; Chairman Lee Jae-yong; John Rim, President of Samsung Biologics (from left).
[Photo by Samsung Electronics]

Chairman Lee’s series of meetings with these key industry leaders aims to further strengthen global collaboration following Samsung Biologics’ rise as the world’s number one contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) company under their cooperation, and to foster the bio business as the 'second semiconductor.'

The bio industry is regarded as a representative field with high entry barriers, requiring not only production technology and research and development (R&D) capabilities but also trust and reputation building for long-term collaboration. By personally expanding the global network, Chairman Lee appears to intend to serve as a 'lever' to create future growth engines by expanding cooperation with big pharma companies.

Meanwhile, after meetings with pharmaceutical companies, Chairman Lee met with employees of the North American sales subsidiary to check on the status of the global supply chain and encourage them. At this meeting, he said, "The starting point does not matter. Bold and persistent challenges determine success or failure. Let’s carry the semiconductor success DNA forward into the bio miracle."

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