Samsung to Invest $740 Million in New Drug Facility
27 November 2015 - 9:30PM
Dow Jones News
SEOUL—The Samsung conglomerate's biologic drug-manufacturing arm
said Friday it would construct a new facility in South Korea that
will double its production capacity and make it the world's largest
contract drug maker when the plant is completed in 2018.
Samsung BioLogics Co., which is 97% owned by Samsung Electronics
Co. and de facto Samsung Group holding company Samsung C&T
Corp., said in a filing it would invest 850 billion Korean won
($740 million) to construct the facility in Songdo, South Korea,
next to its two existing plants.
Unlisted Samsung BioLogics, founded in 2011, has harbored
ambitions of becoming the world's biggest contract
drug-manufacturing company. In 2013, it won contracts to make
biologic drugs for Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Roche Holding
Ltd.
It is already operating a plant with a production capacity of
30,000 liters in Songdo, built on reclaimed land near South Korea's
main international airport. Its second plant, which is five times
bigger, is set to ramp up production next year as it seeks approval
from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The new facility, which Samsung said would be completed by
September 2018, will have 180,000 liters of capacity.
South Korea's biggest conglomerate sees biologic drugs, which
are more complex and expensive to make than simpler
chemically-synthesized ones like aspirin, as a potential growth
engine amid slowing growth of smartphone sales.
Samsung said it hopes to translate its success in semiconductor
manufacturing into a foothold in biologic-drug manufacturing.
Write to Jonathan Cheng at jonathan.cheng@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 27, 2015 05:15 ET (10:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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