[JPM 2026] Samsung Biologics highlights scale, US expansion at JPMorgan conference
SAN FRANCISCO — Samsung Biologics CEO John Rim reiterated the Korean contract development and manufacturing organization, or CDMO, leader's strengths in production capacity, diversifying portfolio and global expansion to maintain growth.
"We've consistently said we will do three things: increase our geographic coverage to be close to our customer, increase our portfolio to provide more one-time service to customers in terms of their needs and then continue to expand capacity so that we get scale, but also synergies and margins, flowing down to the bottom line," Rim said in his presentation during the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco on Tuesday.
Samsung Biologics took part in the annual JPMHC for a 10th consecutive year, as it was selected as one of 25 companies among 500 to give an official presentation at the event's main stage in the grand ballrom.
"We have deliberately taken the stance and branded ‘ExellenS' for Samsung Biologics," Rim explained.
"What we're trying to do is create an optimized manufacturing framework, embed transferability, cost and speed in terms of our sites, in terms of our plants and in terms of our region."
Pointing to the company's core strategy of "4E" — customer excellence, operational excellence, quality excellence and people excellence — the Samsung Biologics CEO noted that the firm's annual earnings from last year are projected to achieve a year-on-year growth rate of between 25 and 30 percent.
Samsung Biologics, which is expected to announce its fourth-quarter earnings next week, is on pace to become the first Korean company to log an annual revenue of over 6 trillion won ($4.1 billion), according to market analysts.
The CEO also highlighted the firm's recent $280 million acquisition of GSK's biopharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Rockville, Maryland, having secured its first US and overseas production foothold. With the addition of the Rockville facility's 60,000-liter capacity, Samsung Biologics now has a total production capacity of 845,000 liters.
"We just acquired the GSK facility, but certainly, what we're going to be doing is we're going to expand the capacity and look for additional ways to further enhance the capacity in the United States to serve our customers, be close to our customers," he said.
According to the CEO, the Rockville facility may add an extra production capacity of between 20,000 and 40,000 liters after Samsung Biologics closes the acquisition in March this year.
"I can promise that in 2026 we will trigger Plant 6, Bio Campus 3," said Rim, referring to building the last third biopharmaceutical manufacturing plant on its Bio Campus 2 and beginning to construct its third Bio Campus in Songdo, Incheon.
"It's a multimodality campus. We're going to be starting to prepare what modalities we will actually have in there."
Samsung Biologics purchased 186,427 square meters of land from the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority in December last year. The company announced a plan to invest 7 trillion won to complete its third bio campus by 2034.
Regarding questions concerning too much capacity, Rim underlined that the market is growing at a robust pace with an estimated compound annual growth rate of between 8 to 10 percent.
"A lot of our clients have come to the conclusion that they will continue — continue to focus on their core competences, which is research and development — and outsource activities that they think other people could do a better job," he said.
"From a balanced perspective of demand and supply, I think we're in pretty good shape."
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