Samsung Biologics Jan-Sept profit beats entire 2019 gains

Samsung Biologics Co., the world’s largest contract manufacturing organization (CMO) in terms of capacity, posted an operating profit of 200.2 billion won ($177 million) in the first nine months of the year, exceeding the profit for all of 2019.

The company said in a regulatory filing on Oct. 21 that its operating income in the January-September period more than doubled from the 91.7 billion won it posted for full-year 2019.

The company attributed the results to increased biomedicine contracts amid the spread of the coronavirus.

For the three months to September, the company’s operating profit rose 139% on year to 56.5 billion won. Revenue increased 49% to 274.6 billion won.

Biopharmaceutical industry officials said Samsung Biologics’ sales could rise to 1 trillion this year if the current uptrend continues.

The company received approval for five biomedicine products from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and two from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) this year alone, bringing its total of approved products to 64.

RARE BENEFICIARY OF COVID-19

Samsung Biologics has been one of the rare beneficiaries of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Being a contract developer and manufacturer for biologics drugs, the company received orders from a large number of foreign pharmaceutical firms seeking to preemptively secure offshore manufacturing capacity for the production of coronavirus vaccines and treatment drugs.

To meet the rising demand, Samsung Biologics said in August it will invest 1.74 trillion won to build its fourth plant in the country.

The new plant will have the world’s largest bioreactor capacity of 256,000 liters and will be operational from the end of 2022.

With the completion of the plant, its total bioreactor capacity will nearly double to 620,000 liters, representing about 30% of global capacity. This compares with the 300,000-liter capacity of Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim and 280,000 liters of Swiss rival Lonza AG.

Write to Min-Su Han at hms@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.