Samsung Biologics sales surpass W1 tril.

By Nam Hyun-woo

Samsung Biologics' sales for last year surpassed 1 trillion won ($903.6 million) for the first time in the company's 10-year history, the 2011-founded biotech firm said Tuesday.

Samsung Biologics said it posted 1.16 trillion won in sales for last year, up 66 percent from a year earlier, due to overall improvements in the operation rates of its Plants 1, 2 and 3. The operating profit also grew to 292.8 billion won, doubling over the same time period.

Due to the improved operation rates, the company's operating margin has also improved, growing to 25 percent in 2020, up from 13 percent in 2019.

In the fourth quarter of last year alone, sales stood at 375.3 billion won, up 19.78 percent year-on-year, and the operating profit was 92.58 billion won, down 13.45 percent from last year.

Compared to 2015, when the company's sales got into a noticeable range, the 2020 sales grew more than 12 times and the compound annual growth rate for the past five years was 66.4 percent.

The handsome numbers came after Samsung Biologics clinched a series of sizable contract development and manufacturing deals last year. Including a $627 million contract with British multinational pharmaceutical firm GSK, the company bagged contracts worth a total $1.71 billion, which is 2.5 times its 2019 sales.

Samsung Biologics attributed the solid earnings to its prompt response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave the company an advantage in winning orders. Last year, the company introduced real-time virtual tour programs for its plants, helping global partner companies learn about the manufacturing capabilities of the company.

The company said it will continue efforts to improve its earnings and expand production capacities to consolidate its status as one of the world's best contract development and manufacturing companies.

During the J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference earlier this month, new CEO John Rim said the company will pursue multidimensional growth for the next decade, expanding its portfolio in the contract development and manufacturing business as well as laying the groundwork for developing novel drugs.

The company is currently standing as one of the world's largest contract manufacturing organizations, with its three plants possessing a combined capacity of 364,000 liters of drugs. It is building the 256,000-liter Plant 4 in Incheon, currently, to meet increasing global demand.

Rim said the company's current order backlog is nearing its full production capacity, thus its primary goal for this year is accelerating the construction of Plant 4 and securing early contract lock-ins for the facility.

So far, Samsung Biologics has won 47 manufacturing contracts from drug developers, and 63 contract development projects.