Samsung Biologics eyes up ADC market for 2023

Samsung Biologics says it is looking at moving into the ADC market and has space free at its plant number four to add capability.

It comes as no surprise that biopharma companies around the world keep an eye on trends and modalities that look to be promising, and Korean contract development manufacturing organization (CDMO) Samsung Biologics is no different.

James Park, executive vice president of global sales at Samsung Biologics, spoke to BioProcess Insider at CPHI, Frankfurt and pointed to antibody drug conjugates (ADC’s) as a technology that is “up and coming,” and “the kind of trend that big pharma companies are having preclinical early-stage biologics.”

Samsung Biologics at CPHI, 2022. Image c/o Millie Nelson

He told us: “We continue to look into more business opportunities and capabilities to help and support the needs of our clients and the market. ADCs is one of the areas that is growing rapidly, and a capability that we are considering (through leveraging our existing antibody development and manufacturing facility) in order to offer as a service to our clients in the near future.”

He said the CDMO has space available to build such capability in plant number four, which has 238,000 square meter floor plan and is – along with its other facilities – located in the Songdo district of Incheon, South Korea. Furthermore, Park said cell line development is currently “looking at different platforms with licensing opportunities.”

The firm also mentioned other technologies that it is looking at as potential future investments. “Cell and gene therapies is more regional in the US space and biotech companies. We are looking into this, but it is not a big market at the moment [however] we continue to monitor and service the landscape, that’s the trend we are thinking of.”

This is not the first time that Samsung Biologics has said it is looking to expand its service offerings. In September 2018, the firm said that it is considering entering into the stem cell therapy services in response to its customers’ demands, however this expansion never came to fruition.