April 27, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Bioepis, a biosimilar medicine affiliate of Samsung Group, said on June 8 it will break ground for the construction of a new headquarters near the current building in Songdo, Incheon, this month.

The 13-storey building will be built on a 47,000 square-meter site, with the completion set for June 2020. 

Currently, some 700 employees are dispersed at two office buildings -- the current one and another within Samsung Electronics’ research complex in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.

“The new building will have research and development facilities but we haven’t decided whether to move all the researchers in Suwon to Songdo,” company spokesperson Min Byoung-hoon told The Investor. He declined to comment on the amount of planned investment.

Songdo is home to the nation’s big biotech companies, including Samsung BioLogics, the contract drug-making unit of Samsung Group and Bioepis’ parent firm, and its biosimilar rival Celltrion.

The planned relocation comes as Samsung Bioepis is seeking to bolster its presence in the global biosimilar market.

In April, the company won US approval to sell its Renflexis, a copycat version of J&J’s top selling arthritis treatment Remicade. The drug was commercialized in the European Union as Flixabi in 2016.

Another biosimilar therapy called Benepali, Samsung’s version of Amgen’s top-selling Enbrel, is available in the largest pharma markets -- US and Europe.

The company has registered operating losses for four years in a row since it was founded in 2012 as a joint venture between Samsung BioLogics and US biotech firm Biogen.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)