The COVID-19 pandemic has caused shockwaves across the pharmaceutical industry with some drugmakers booking major losses in recent months. But the crisis hasn't been a bad thing for everyone: South Korea's Samsung Biologics, for instance, is swimming in new orders, and it's planning to build a long-awaited facility to celebrate.
Samsung Biologics is plotting a $2 billion "Super Plant" at its Incheon, South Korea hub, with a footprint as large as its other three facilities combined, the CDMO said Monday.
The ambitious facility will encompass 2.56 million square feet of floor space and 256,000 liters of capacity—nearly doubling the CDMO's overall capacity to 620,000 liters, Samsung said. The plant is set to go online in 2022.
Meanwhile, driven by a boost in sales tied to COVID-19, Samsung Biologics is negotiating to secure an additional campus in Incheon on 81.5 acres of land, the company said. The new site in the Incheon Free Economic Zone would become an "Open Innovation center to foster biotech companies and build a global R&D facility in addition to securing space for future plants within the new complex," Samsung said.
Samsung's zealous expansion plans come as the COVID-19 pandemic has sent demand for its therapeutics through the roof in recent months. The company booked $1.5 billion in orders in the first half of 2020—a 150% increase over its 12-month total last year, according to a release.
