'Do you have a factory in the US?' — K-bio firms draw crowds at BIO USA 2026

The hottest question global partners directed at Korean biotech firms on the floor of the 2026 BIO International Convention (BIO USA) in San Diego was blunt: "Do you have your own production facility in the United States?"

With the US Biosecure Act casting uncertainty over dealings with Chinese firms, buyers searching for safe and reliable alternatives made their urgency unmistakable on the convention floor. Korean companies responded by showcasing advanced manufacturing capabilities aligned with the reshaping of global supply chains — and a distinctly Korean flair for marketing — to court more than 20,000 global partners in attendance.

This year's event marked the first time Korean biotech companies took the stage as genuine US-based manufacturers ready for full-scale global business development. Partners from around the world flocked to Korean booths with pointed questions about local production capacity. The prime targets of interest were Samsung Biologics' Rockville, Maryland campus and Celltrion's Branchburg, New Jersey factory — both North American footholds secured after last year's BIO USA.

Samsung Biologics completed its acquisition of the Rockville plant — formerly owned by Human Genome Sciences (HGS), a GlaxoSmithKline subsidiary — in April. The deal was valued at $280 million. The facility comprises two manufacturing buildings with a combined drug substance production capacity of 60,000 liters, and Samsung retained all roughly 500 local employees to ensure operational continuity. Whereas the company could only say it was "pursuing" the acquisition at last year's BIO USA, this year it arrived with a fully operational US production base.

Celltrion finalized its acquisition of Eli Lilly's biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Branchburg, New Jersey, last December, and secured a contract manufacturing agreement with Lilly worth approximately 678.7 billion won ($473 million). The site spans roughly 45,000 pyeong (about 148,500 square meters) and includes four buildings — a production building, a logistics warehouse, a technical support building and an operations building — with an annual drug substance production capacity of 66,000 liters. Like Samsung's Rockville campus, it is a US production base secured after last year's BIO USA.

Lotte Biologics is already operating the Syracuse campus (40,000 liters) it acquired from Bristol Myers Squibb in late 2022. A dual-site strategy is taking shape: the Syracuse facility handles early-stage clinical volumes focused on antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates, while the first plant at Incheon's Songdo Bio Campus — a 120,000-liter facility set to be completed in August — will serve as the large-scale commercial production hub. This year's convention is effectively the first major stage for Lotte Biologics to lock in global contracts ahead of that dual-site system coming fully online.

Samsung Biologics anchored the center of the exhibition hall with a 140-square-meter booth that guided visitors clockwise through its CDO platform, manufacturing capabilities and organoid services. James Choi, executive vice president of sales support, said the company was spotlighting its CDO capabilities above all else. "Many of the small and mid-sized biotechs attending this event use CDO services, so we are focusing our presentation on those customers," he said.

The centerpiece of Samsung Biologics' pitch was ExellenS™, a production optimization framework unveiled last October. Choi described it as "a concept of manufacturing system equivalence that distills 15 years of know-how, ensuring the same quality and processes are delivered across every facility — from Plant 1 through the future Plant 6." An interactive touchscreen inside the booth displayed the company's current combined production capacity of 845,000 liters, integrating 785,000 liters at Incheon Songdo and 60,000 liters at Rockville. Three private meeting rooms and an ad hoc space inside the booth were lined up for roughly 100 customer meetings.

Lotte Biologics commanded attention with holographic laser sculptures cascading from the ceiling. A dynamic thread installation at the center of the booth visualized the company's "dual engine" strategy linking its Syracuse, New York campus with Incheon Songdo. The display foregrounded a two-track structure in which the already-operational Syracuse campus handles early clinical volumes while the 120,000-liter Songdo Plant 1, due for completion in August, takes on large-scale commercial production. The concept is captured in the company's tagline: "Heritage meets Future."

Jeon Ji-won, head of strategic planning at Lotte Biologics, said the company planned to use BIO USA to communicate its "Heritage meets Future" vision — organically connecting Syracuse's commercial manufacturing experience with the advanced large-scale infrastructure of Songdo Bio Campus Plant 1. The company also co-hosted a session with cell-line development firm Asimov, publicly revealing for the first time that the two companies completed a project from the DNA stage through drug substance production in approximately 8.5 months.

Creative on-site marketing by Korean companies added to the buzz on the convention floor. The hottest merchandise of the event belonged to Celltrion, whose booth offered visitors the chance to make their own keyboard keycaps engraved with the company logo. Supplies ran out early on the first day. Word spread so quickly — "Where did you get that keycap?" — that attendees spotted carrying one at other booths turned around and made their way back to find Celltrion.

The SK Biopharm booth drew its own crowds, with prize draws pulling in waves of visitors and first-day foot traffic jumping more than 50 percent compared with the same period last year. A hand mirror featuring a tiger motif drawn from Korean folk painting — inspired by the character "Deoppi" from the animated series "K-Pop Demon Hunters" — spread by word of mouth. When a quiz asking attendees to name the company's US subsidiary flashed on screen, dozens of foreign participants shot their hands up at once.

In front of the Dong-A Socio Group joint booth — shared by Btigene, Dong-A ST and ST Pharm — a traditional Korean coin-toss game drew foreign attendees who laughed and competed as they flung coins at the target. Inside the booth, pipeline meetings proceeded in earnest at the same time. At the Korea Pavilion open stage, where startups and mid-sized companies without dedicated booths gathered, foreign audiences filled the seats for English-language pipeline presentations.