Samsung Biologics, which has focused on the rapid expansion of manufacturing capacity, will move toward diversifying its business portfolio to emerge as a global company in the next decade, the company’s top manager said Wednesday.

"The company has focused on stabilizing its business and rapidly expanding production scale during the decade," Samsung Biologics CEO John Rim said at the 2021 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. "For the next 10 years, we will leap forward as a comprehensive global bio company through diversified business expansion that simultaneously expands production scale and business portfolio."

Rim said the company is building a second Bio Campus in Incheon, following its dedication of a contract development organization (CDO) R&D center in San Francisco last year.

Samsung Biologics plans to set up additional CDO R&D centers in Boston, Europe, and China in the future and is examining the possibility of securing a contract manufacturing organization (CMO) plant abroad to improve customer satisfaction.

To expand its business portfolio, the company will strengthen open innovation and consider investment in new pipeline and platform technologies and expand the existing antibody drug-centered business structure to include cell therapies and vaccines.

"In the long term, we will solidify our position as a champion in the CMO, CDO, and biosimilar fields, and explore the new areas of drug business based on accumulated innovative technology and experience," Rim said. "We will make the three business areas as a new growth engine for Samsung's bio-industry."

Rim revealed the company's short-term goal during the presentation.

"Demand for CMOs and CDOs continues to increase in the bio-industry due to global outsourcing trend, pipeline expansion, and new bio companies," Rim said. "Samsung Biologics will respond to these market demands and diverse customer needs, and will focus on receiving orders for the fourth plant before starting a full-scale operation."

Rim stressed that the company could set its short- and long-term goals due to its strong growth despite the Covid-19 virus last year.

"Samsung Biologics achieved its goals in all business areas last year," Rim said. "In the CMO area, the company received the largest number of orders with annual sales of 1.85 trillion won ($1.6 billion) in 2020, operating all the three plants to their full capacity."

Despite difficulties in conducting business due to the Covid-19 virus, the company proactively built a digital system that allowed virtual tours and exhibitions to respond to global regulators and customers promptly, Rim noted.

"Through such efforts, the company won recognition as one of the most competitive CMO worldwide in terms of differentiated customer service amid the Covid-19 pandemic," he said.

Samsung Biologics’ CDO business has also successfully taken its root in the market in just three years of its launch, as the number of contracts continued to increase in keeping with its project capacity, Rim added.