Pharmaceutical companies expanded their employment despite the prolonging Covid-19 pandemic in the first half of this year, data showed.
Notably, the number of employees at companies providing contracted manufacturing service for Covid-19 vaccines, such as Samsung Biologics and SK Bioscience, increased sharply as they added the workforce.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSC), employment at eight out of the top 10 biopharmaceutical companies in organizational size recruited more new workers in the first six months compared to the same period of the previous year. Some trimmed their corporate payrolls, but no significant changes. Were made
Samsung Biologics increased its employees from 2,717 in the first half of 2020 to 3,515 this year. It had steadily expanded its employment until 2020. As the company expanded its capacity for contract manufacturing business, the rush of new orders led to more employees handling the tasks.
The company’s number of employees increased sharply after the contract for manufacturing the Moderna vaccine in May. The number, which remained in the 2000s last year, jumped to 3,434 in the first quarter and 3515 in the second quarter.
Samsung Biologics also recorded the most robust quarterly performance in the April-June period, with sales of 412.2 billion won ($3.48 million) and an operating profit of 166.8 billion won.
"Moderna vaccine is one of the most important weapons for people fighting against Covid-19, and I thank Moderna for choosing Samsung Biologics as a partner," Samsung Biologics CEO John Rim said.
Aside from the deal with Moderna, Samsung Biologics also agreed to produce GSK and Eli Lilly's Covid-19 antibody treatment worth $231 million and $150 million, respectively.
SK Bioscience also drastically increased its workforce. After the company spun off from SK Chemicals in 2018, the company had maintained the number of employees in the mid-400s until the second quarter of 2020.
However, the number had increased sharply since the third quarter of last year when SK Bioscience began to hire more people to make AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccines.
The company signed an agreement with AstraZeneca in July 2020 and Novavax this past February to manufacture their Covid-19 vaccines.
SK Bioscience gave up flu vaccine production, where it had enjoyed the most significant domestic market share to meet the demand for Covid-19 vaccine production. For similar purposes, the company said it would mobilize its plant in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province.
SK Bioscience's vaccine production had stood at 613,847 doses until the first half of last year but increased nearly 50 times to 29,614,198 doses. Most of the increased volume was due to AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccines.
Industry watchers said that many of the newly hired employees were put into contract manufacture of vaccines considering that the contract volume for consignment production reaches hundreds of millions of doses.
SK Bioscience CEO Ahn Jae-yong has said that the company would make its plant in Andong the global vaccine production facility center. Ahn stressed that smooth cooperation with the central and local governments would help make the country a global vaccine hub.
Other companies, including inno.N, Celltrion, and GC Pharma, also increased their recruitment.
inno.N increased the number of employees by 8.3 percent, from 1,503 in 2020 to 1,627 in June. GC Pharma also increased its staff by 5.7 percent, and Celltrion beefed up its workforce by 0.8 percent.