Samsung Biologics eyes Barcelona boost at world’s largest pharma show

Samsung Biologics is eyeing new opportunities in Barcelona as it showcases its fifth plant at the CPHI Worldwide 2023 event, the world's largest pharmaceutical trade show.

James Choi, executive vice president at Samsung Biologics, speaks on Tuesday at the company’s booth during the CPHI Worldwide 2023 held at Fira Barcelona Gran Via. [SHIN HA-NEE]

BARCELONA, Spain — Barcelona, where the CPHI Worldwide 2023 is taking place, may be the land of new opportunities for Samsung Biologics.

"Many companies and customers across the world have shown quite an interest in our Plant 5, because they need that production capacity," said James Choi, executive vice president at Samsung Biologics on Tuesday at the company’s booth at Fira Barcelona Gran Via conference center.

Sales activities for the upcoming fifth plant was one of the primary agendas for this year's CPHI, according to Choi.

“The most important thing here is the meetings we are going to have with customers, building relationships and such,” said Choi, adding that “the CPHI is the most convenient place to meet with our customers in Europe, particularly."

CPHI — the Convention on Pharmaceutical Ingredients — kicked off its three-day journey at Fira Barcelona Gran Via on Tuesday. The event, which started in 1990, is the world’s largest pharmaceutical trade show.

As the CPHI serves as a central venue for industry professionals to explore business opportunities and form new ties, sets of chairs and tables adorned most of the exhibition booths, welcoming potential clients and interested attendees, while meeting rooms were filled with a constant influx of visitors.

Located near the center of Hall C, which is mainly dedicated to contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), Samsung Biologics' booth featured three main meeting rooms, as well as two additional rooms for ad hoc meetings, to house numerous visitors.

Hall C of Fira Barcelona Gran Via, where the CPHI 2023 is taking place from Tuesday to Thursday [SHIN HA-NEE]

The main focus for this year's exhibition booth was on the company's massive production capacity, which is the largest in the world and still expanding.

Samsung Biologics’ fifth plant is currently under construction in Songdo, Incheon. The company is investing 1.98 trillion won ($1.47 billion) to build a 180,000-liter (163,000-quart) Plant 5, which is slated to begin operations in April 2025. With the addition of the fifth plant, the Incheon-based company is set to secure a contract manufacturing capacity of 784,000 liters a year.

As Samsung plans to add three more 180,000-liter plants by 2032, its entire production capacity combining eight plants will reach 1,324,000 million liters.

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) were also a topic of interest, with Samsung planning to begin the conjugation linking service next year, Choi explained.

Moreover, the executive vice president put emphasis on the sustainability agenda, which has become one of the priorities for overseas big pharma, stressing that Samsung Biologics received the 2022 Terra Carta Seal, as well as other global-level certificates and recognitions for its sustainability compliance efforts.

"In terms of sustainability, we are one of the leading CDMO players in the world," said Choi.

About 2,500 exhibitors from 170 countries are taking part in this year’s CPHI with more than 45,000 visitors estimated to attend the event through Thursday.

Some 70 Korean companies and organizations put their names on the exhibitor list, including big names such as Samsung Biologics, SK pharmteco, Lotte Biologics and Celltrion included.

Lotte Biologics’ focus is also on forming, and strengthening, business ties with its existing and potential clients.

Lotte Biologics' exhibition booth at the CPHI 2023 held in Fira Barcelona Gran Via [SHIN HA-NEE]

Woo Se-hee, Lotte Biologics’ global public relations manager, cited the production capabilities at its Syracuse site in New York, which the company acquired from Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) with $160 million last year, as its major strength in CDMO business.

“About 99 percent of employees at the Syracuse site that have been hired by BMS before renewed their contracts with us,” said Woo.

“This is a huge advantage for us, as they have extensive experience in making BMS drugs for decades,” which results in high batch yield rates, according to the manager.

Many customers are also highly interested in Lotte Biologics’ ADC facility at the Syracuse plant, which is slated for completion by 2025, as there are very few ADC plants in the United States at this point, Woo explained.

Celltrion said that it expanded its booth size about 1.5 times from last year, as some 200 attendees a day on average visited the company’s booth during the previous CPHI. The number of pre-booked meetings surpassed that of last year ahead of the event, according to the biopharmaceutical company.

“This year’s CPHI is an opportunity for us to showcase our brand values and highlight the competitive advantage by showcasing our expanded product portfolio and pipelines,” a Celltrion spokesperson said.

Celltrion was recently granted approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the sale of its infliximab biosimilar Zymfentra, the world's first monoclonal antibody biosimilar.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]