Samsung Biologics said Tuesday that it signed a contract with the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) to purchase industrial facility land in the high-tech industrial cluster of Songdo International City’s 11th block.
Samsung Biologics plans to become the "world's No. 1 CDMO company" by building four plants in the 11th block alone to secure additional production facilities at its second bio campus. The total project cost will likely amount to 7 trillion won ($5.3 billion).
The second bio campus is expected to generate 10,000 jobs by 2032 through campus construction and jobs created at its suppliers.
"The contract will bring about mutual benefits for Incheon and Samsung Biologics by dominating the global biopharmaceutical market through continuous cooperation," Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok said, highly evaluating Samsung Biologics' investment and achievements over the past decade,
In response, Samsung Biologics CEO John Rim said, "We thank the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Incheon City for creating conditions for Samsung Biologics to make preemptive and bold investments. We will continue implementing our investment plans to lead the global biopharmaceutical industry."
Currently, all factories in Samsung Biologics’ first bio campus in Songdo are in full operation due to surging global CDMO demands. To respond to soaring global biopharmaceutical demand to produce various next-generation medicines, the second bio campus site, with a space of 357,000 square meters, is about 30 percent larger than the first bio campus (238,000㎡), the company said.
Along with world-class biopharmaceutical production facilities, the second bio campus will have an Open Innovation Center to foster bio ventures and provide research and development (R&D) and analysis services to strengthen its R&D capabilities, it added.
According to Research and Markets, the global CDMO market is expected to grow 8.4 percent annually, from $177.1 billion in 2020 to $302 billion in 2026.
“Thanks to our CDMO competitiveness worldwide, global Big Pharma, such as Merck, GSK, and Novartis, maintain contracts with the company,” a company official said. “At this rate of expansion and with the acquisition of Biogen’s shares in Samsung Bioepis, Samsung Biologics will account for 30 percent of the world's biopharmaceutical products based on the three pillars of CDMO, biosimilar, and new drugs.”