Late last year, South Korean contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) Samsung BioLogics announced construction at its third and largest plant at its Songdo, Incheon site was complete.
Validation is ongoing and expected to be completed by the end of the year, but despite this the firm announced this week it has entered into its first manufacturing contract at the plant.
Details of the client has not been divulged, but Samsung BioLogics described the customer as a “fast growing company.” If the product moves successfully into commercial production, Samusng BioLogics could net up to $148m (€120m).
The third plant adds 180,000L of stainless steel bioreactor capacity, effectively doubling the total capacity across Samsung BioLogics other two plants.
A spokesperson from the firm told Biopharma-Reporter this deal is just the start of what is expected to be high and fast deployment at the new plant.
“We are now discussing with multiple biopharma companies for long-term partnerships, so the capacity [utilisation rate] will be absolutely getting bigger.”
While having three plants and a total of 362,000L of capacity, Samsung BioLogics said last year it is assessing building a fourth facility, potentially outside South Korea.
“Considering the growing needs of our clients for tax reasons and geographic risk management, there is a lot of demand to build a plant out of Korea,” CEO TH Kim told delegates at the CPhI Preconnect Congress in Frankfurt, Germany in October.
“We are seriously considering building a future plant out of Korea, hopefully in Europe or America, near to our clients.”