Lee Jae-yong visits Samsung Biologics with 'record high performance' saying "Let's challenge more boldly"

Battery followed by bio inspection
Samsung Biologics visit after 1 year and 4 months
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"Don't be satisfied with current achievements, aim higher"

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong visited Samsung Biologics' Incheon plant, which achieved record-breaking performance, on the 16th and urged, "Let's not be satisfied with the current achievements and take bolder challenges."

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who visited Samsung Biologics' Incheon plant, is receiving a briefing from an official at the construction site of the 5th plant. Photo by Samsung Electronics

According to Samsung Electronics, Chairman Lee inspected the site of Plant 5, which is under construction with a completion target of next year, and the production line of Plant 4, which is currently in full operation. He then received reports from Samsung Biologics' management on the technology development roadmap and mid-to-long-term business strategies, saying, "Let's move toward the future with higher goals."

This visit marks the first time in 1 year and 4 months since Chairman Lee attended the completion ceremony of Samsung Biologics Plant 4 in October 2022.

Following his visit to Samsung SDI’s production plant in Malaysia during the Lunar New Year holiday to check on the battery business, Chairman Lee visited the bio business site, a future new growth engine, within a week. This is part of his active on-site activities both domestically and internationally after being acquitted in the first trial of the 'illegal succession of management rights' case.

Samsung Biologics, which he visited this time, achieved record-breaking results last year with consolidated annual sales of 3.7 trillion KRW, operating profit of 1.1 trillion KRW, and orders worth 3.5 trillion KRW. Samsung Bioepis also contributed to the record performance by surpassing 1 trillion KRW in sales within 12 years of its founding, having obtained sales approvals for treatments for autoimmune diseases, cancer, blood disorders, and ophthalmic diseases.

This steep growth is evaluated to have been made possible by proactive investment decisions and bold nurturing efforts. Samsung selected bio as a future new growth engine in 2010 and established Samsung Biologics in 2011 to officially start the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) business for biopharmaceuticals. At the time of its IPO in 2016, Samsung Biologics’ annual sales were around 300 billion KRW; in seven years, they grew twelvefold, and through aggressive investment, it achieved the world’s number one production capacity in 2022. Currently, it counts 14 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies as clients and is constructing Plant 5 to meet the rapidly increasing customer demand. Plant 5, scheduled to start operation in April next year, will have a production capacity of 180,000 liters.

This year, Samsung Biologics plans to diversify its business by officially starting the development of antibody-drug conjugates (ADC), a next-generation cancer treatment technology. According to the industry, the ADC market, which was worth 8 trillion KRW in 2022, is expected to grow significantly to 17 trillion KRW by 2026.

Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Biologics, visited the Incheon plant and received a briefing from an official at the construction site of the ADC (Antibody-drug conjugate) manufacturing facility. Photo by Samsung Electronics

Samsung Biologics, together with Samsung C&T and Samsung Bioepis, has established a 240 billion KRW 'Life Science Fund' to proactively invest in future technologies. Last year, it made an equity investment in 'Aimedbio,' a domestic company developing new drugs for intractable brain diseases.

Having completed the construction of the first bio campus with the completion of Plant 4, Samsung Biologics plans to invest 7.5 trillion KRW by 2032 to build a second bio campus. Samsung stated that this is expected to create about 400 jobs annually, and when combined with employment effects for partner companies and construction workers, it is anticipated to generate employment for about 10,000 people by 2032.

The number of Samsung Biologics employees, which was about 100 at the time of its establishment in 2011, has increased to approximately 4,500, with more than half of the total employees in their 20s. As performance has increased, the amount of corporate tax paid also doubled from 130 billion KRW in 2021 to 260 billion KRW in 2023.

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