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The Korea Herald
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THE INVESTOR
March 28, 2024

Bio

Samsung BioLogics overtakes Lonza in market cap

  • PUBLISHED :September 19, 2017 - 16:25
  • UPDATED :September 19, 2017 - 17:50
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[THE INVESTOR] Samsung BioLogics’ stock price has more than doubled since its market debut last November to take on the segment leader Switzerland’s Lonza in terms of market value.

Stocks of the contract drug manufacturing arm of Samsung Group closed at 338,000 won (US$298.85) on Sept. 19, pushing its market capitalization above 22.36 trillion won. In comparison, Lonza’s market cap sits at 18.77 Swiss Franc (22.12 trillion won).




The Korean CMO’s stocks have continued to rally as investors are betting on the future success of the company that is seeking to emerge as a strong player in the biomanufacturing outsourcing market, which is currently dominated by Lonza and Boehringer-Ingelheim.

Six-year-old Samsung BioLogics, which produces drugs on behalf of global pharmaceutical giants such as Bristol-Myers Squibb and Roche, is also challenging Lonza in production capacity.

It plans to complete its third facility to add a further 180,000 liters of mammalian cell culture capacity by November to become the world’s largest contract manufacturer with a total capacity of 362,000 liters. Lonza’s total capacity stands at 260,200 liters.

“When the third plant commences operations in 2019, Samsung BioLogics will outpace Lonza in capacity,” Ku Wan-sung, analyst at NH Investment & Securities.

Competing against long-time dominant market player Lonza, in any case, is a meaningful step for Samsung BioLogics which recently announced plans to expand its business portfolio to what Lonza has been specialized in -- biopharmaceutical development services. Although the Korean company has not yet turned a profit due to vast investments in drug-making facilities.

Putting more pressure on the Swiss contractor, the Incheon-based company filed a lawsuit in Korea to nullify Lonza’s patents involving its cell line development technology in July.

Samsung BioLogics aims to remove legal hurdles set by Lonza involving an expression vector that delivers a specific DNA into a target cell and instigates its growth.

The Korean company claimed that the use of this expression vector forms is the basis of any biologics development and cannot be perceived as technology exclusive to Lonza, and the patent has been canceled in developed countries like the US, EU and Japan.

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

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