biology

Samsung Biologics

Samsung Biologics is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Samsung Biologics rather than just read about it. In short: Samsung Biologics Co., Ltd. (Korean: 삼성바이오로직스) is a global contract development and manufacturing organization headquartered in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea.

Key takeaways

Samsung Biologics belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Samsung Biologics to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Samsung Biologics from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Samsung Biologics Co., Ltd. (Korean: 삼성바이오로직스) is a global contract development and manufacturing organization headquartered in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea. The biotech division of Samsung Group, its core services range from late discovery to large-scale commercial manufacturing. The company focuses on monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates, and mRNA vaccines. The company has partnered with pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

History

Facilities & Expansion Founded in 2011, Samsung Biologics built four manufacturing plants between 2011 and 2023 with a combined capacity of 605,000 liters. In 2023, Samsung Biologics began construction of a fifth plant in Incheon, South Korea with a capacity of 180,000 liters. In March 2025, Samsung Biologics began operations at its dedicated antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) manufacturing facility in Songdo, expanding its service capabilities into ADC production. With the addition of Plant 5, the company holds a total manufacturing capacity of 785,000 liters. Since 2020, Samsung Biologics has expanded its United States operations, opening offices in New Jersey and Boston to more closely support U.S. biopharmaceutical companies across both coasts. In 2025, Samsung Biologics also opened a regional office in Tokyo, Japan, to strengthen ties with Japanese pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. In 2025, Samsung acquired the Human Genome Sciences drug production facilities based in Rockville, Maryland from GSK plc for $280 million to establish their first US production site. In 2025, Samsung Biologics launched ExellenS™, a manufacturing framework based on the company's experience in plant design, digitalization, and operations. The framework standardizes equipment, processes, and functional specifications to facilitate technology transfers, regulatory approvals, and production outcomes. Samsung Biologics uses the ExellenS™ model to maintain consistency across its manufacturing operations.

Notable Partnerships As of June 2024, Samsung Biologics' CEO John Rim reported active partnerships with 16 of the top 20 largest biopharmaceutical companies. This includes early deals with Roche and Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2013, through to large partnerships during and after the pandemic. In 2020, GSK and Samsung Biologics signed the first of two major agreements: a $231 million, eight-year deal to manufacture biological therapies, including the lupus drug Benlysta. Two years later, a second $296 million deal was signed. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Samsung Biologics partnered with Moderna for fill-finish, packaging and labeling of its mRNA vaccine, Spikevax. The company was also contracted to manufacture Eli Lilly's COVID-19 antibody therapeutic and AstraZeneca's long-acting antibody therapeutic as part of a larger multi-product deal. In June 2023, Samsung Biologics entered a partnership with Pfizer for the commercial manufacturing of Pfizer’s multi-product biosimilars portfolio in a deal worth $411 million. A month later, Samsung Biologics entered two deals with Pfizer worth a combined $897 million to produce biosimilar products ranging from oncology and inflammation to immunotherapy at its Plant 4. Along with Big pharma partnerships, the company has engaged with smaller development-stage companies. In 2023, Samsung Biologics announced a multi-year agreement with European venture capital firm Kurma Partners to support its portfolio companies through development, manufacturing, and de-risking services. In February 2024, Samsung Biologics announced a partnership agreement with LigaChem (formerly LegoChem) Biosciences to provide antibody development and drug substance manufacturing services to support LigaChem's antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) pipeline. Samsung Biologics signed a 1.7 trillion won ($1.2 billion) deal with an unnamed Asian pharmaceutical company to provide contract manufacturing organization services, the largest contract secured in the company's history.

Business Ventures In 2012, it established Samsung Bioepis, a biosimilar medicine developer, as a joint venture with Biogen. The company acquired full ownership of Samsung Bioepis in 2022 by purchasing all remaining shares from Biogen for $2.3 billion. Samsung Biologics completed its spin-off of Samsung Bioepis. In 2021, the Samsung Life Science Fund was created through a joint partnership between Samsung Biologics, Samsung Bioepis, and Samsung C&T. The fund, managed by Samsung Ventures, aims to foster the growth of next-generation technologies, such as gene therapies and ADCs. In July 2026, Samsung Biologics announced it would acquire Swiss peptide contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) PolyPeptide Group for approximately 1.46 billion Swiss francs, in what was described as the largest merger and acquisition in the history of South Korea's pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Samsung Biologics said it would acquire 100 percent of PolyPeptide Group's shares through a purchase of the majority shareholder's stake followed by a tender offer, with the acquisition expected to be completed by the end of December 2026.

Platforms Samsung Biologics has developed a range of proprietary technologies for biologics development. This includes S-CHOice, a cell line expression technology introduced in 2020. In 2022, Samsung Biologics launched S-DUAL, a bispecific antibody platform, and its DEVELOPICK platform, a service that selects candidate materials for new drugs. Samsung Biologics has since expanded its technology portfolio with additional platforms, including S-CHOsient, S-AfuCHO, S-Tensify, S-Glyn, S-OptiCharge, and S-HiCon.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Samsung Biologics

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Samsung Biologics claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Samsung Biologics before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Samsung Biologics ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Samsung Biologics

In research: Samsung Biologics appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Samsung Biologics in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Samsung Biologics is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2016 initial public offerings, Biotechnology companies of South Korea, Companies based in Incheon, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Samsung Biologics outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Samsung Biologics in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Samsung Biologics means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Samsung Biologics out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Samsung Biologics in simple terms?

Samsung Biologics Co., Ltd. (Korean: 삼성바이오로직스) is a global contract development and manufacturing organization headquartered in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea.

Why does Samsung Biologics matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Samsung Biologics?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Samsung Biologics.