Samsung Biologics completes global triangle with European push, US plant expansion

Samsung Biologics is pressing ahead with its target of 15–20 percent sales growth this year, anchored by a new European sales office and a capacity expansion review at its US production base — even as the company faces its first-ever labor union strike. CEO John Rim expressed confidence that robust global order volumes and a diversified North American and European infrastructure would dispel market concerns and keep the company on track.

Rim made the remarks Tuesday (local time) at a press briefing on the sidelines of the 2026 BIO International Convention in San Diego. "Our year-end growth target of 15 to 20 percent remains unchanged, and our global portfolio expansion strategy will proceed without disruption," he said.

Markets have raised concerns that a looming strike by Samsung Biologics' in-house labor union could drag down utilization rates and erode trust among global clients. Rim's public reaffirmation of the guidance reflects the company's assessment that its highly automated biopharmaceutical production systems, combined with established business continuity protocols, can fully prevent any meaningful disruption to output.

Samsung Biologics will open a European sales office in Amsterdam in the third quarter. "With the European office, we will have effectively covered all the key geographic hubs for global sales," Rim said. The move completes a triangular sales network spanning the United States — which accounts for 52 percent of the global biopharmaceutical market — Europe (20 percent) and the Asia-Pacific region (19 percent), together representing roughly 90 percent of the global market. Samsung Biologics previously opened offices in New Jersey in 2023 and Tokyo in 2025.

Plans for expanding the company's US production hub in Rockville, Maryland, also took shape. Post-merger integration of the Rockville plant, acquired from GlaxoSmithKline for $280 million in April, is proceeding smoothly. "We are actively reviewing a plan to add 40,000 liters of capacity on top of the 60,000 liters currently in operation," Rim said. Revenue recognition from the Rockville facility is expected to begin in earnest in the third quarter, following initial sample shipments in the second quarter this year.

On optimizing the acquired facility, Rim added: "Building your own house from scratch is ideal, but buying an apartment means you need to renovate — similarly, we are reconfiguring the Rockville facility from a GSK-tailored setup to one capable of multi-product manufacturing, though it is not a major obstacle." All 520 local employees have been retained.

Samsung Biologics also plans to accelerate the build-out of large-scale production capacity. The company will finalize this year whether to break ground on Plant 6 at its Songdo campus, which would add 180,000 liters of capacity. Combined with the existing five Songdo plants — Plants 1 through 5, totaling 785,000 liters — Plant 6 would bring total Songdo capacity to 965,000 liters. Once the second bio campus (Plants 5 through 8) is fully built out and the Rockville plant's 60,000 liters are included, Samsung Biologics' total global production capacity would reach 1.385 million liters.

The company also shared a more detailed blueprint for its third bio campus, intended to capture next-generation modality markets. Samsung Biologics has designated peptides as the focus for the third campus, with groundbreaking set for this year. "Unlike the first and second campuses, which center on monoclonal antibodies, we are seriously considering building peptide lines at the third campus capable of producing GLP-1-based obesity treatments," Rim said. On concerns about oversupply in the monoclonal antibody market, he said the outlook remains sound: "Process complexity is rising with bi- and tri-specific antibodies, and indications are rapidly expanding into neurological treatments such as Alzheimer's disease and anti-aging therapies."

On the investment front, Samsung Biologics is deploying its Samsung Life Science Fund III, worth 200 billion won ($130 million), to make aggressive equity investments in next-generation biotech. The company also plans to leverage its newly launched Samsung Organoid screening service to capture early synergies within the Samsung group's biotech ecosystem — including Samsung Medical Center — and to extend its portfolio into contract research. Asked about its penetration among the world's top 20 pharmaceutical companies, Rim was confident: "It has been several years since we secured 17 of them, and given the active M&A activity in the pharmaceutical industry, we have in effect brought in virtually all of the big pharma companies we targeted as clients."