Already boasting an outsized presence in its home country of South Korea, CDMO juggernaut Samsung Biologics is making manufacturing inroads in the U.S. by way of an acquisition.<\/p>\n
Samsung Bio\u2019s U.S. subsidiary will pay $280 million to acquire<\/a> GSK’s Human Genome Sciences and its two pharmaceutical manufacturing plants at a campus in Rockville, Maryland. The site, which will mark Samsung Bio\u2019s first for production in the U.S., features a total 60,000 liters of drug substance capacity and is equipped to handle clinical and commercial manufacturing from small to large scale, according to a Dec. 21 press release.<\/p>\n After working as partners, GSK moved in to acquire<\/a> Human Genome Sciences for approximately $3.6 billion back in 2012.\u00a0<\/p>\n Samsung Bio says it will continue to manufacture products already being made at the site and noted that it plans to invest further to expand capacity and upgrade technology there \u201cto further support a more resilient U.S. supply chain for critical biologic medicines.\u201d<\/p>\n Samsung Bio also plans to retain \u201cmore than 500\u201d employees at the site. The Korean CDMO says that it expects the deal to close toward the end of 2026\u2019s first quarter.<\/p>\n “Today’s agreement to divest\u00a0the\u00a0Rockville\u00a0manufacturing site to our valued long-term partner, Samsung Biologics, will secure the manufacture of two important medicines on US soil for US patients and further build GSK’s supply chain resilience,\u201d Regis Simard, GSK\u2019s president of global supply chain, said in a statement. Simard did not clarify which drugs Samsung will continue to produce.<\/p>\n Samsung Bio already has significant manufacturing firepower<\/a> on its home turf of Songdo in Incheon, South Korea. All told, the company currently boasts 785,000 liters of capacity across five plants spread over two co-located campuses, with a third campus now on the way. Samsung Bio says it recently secured land for that site, dubbed Bio Campus III, which will be used for both \u201cdistinct R&D\u201d and manufacturing programs for new drug modalities.<\/p>\n As it stands, the CDMO is equipped to carry out contracting work on medicines like monoclonal antibodies, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and mRNA, as well organoid-based services and next-generation therapies.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s messaging on U.S. supply chain resilience plays into the onshoring mindset that has driven much of the Trump administration\u2019s pharmaceutical tariff wrangling this year.<\/p>\n While many large, brand-name drugmakers have now inked<\/a> pharmaceutical pricing deals that exempt them from tariffs for a limited period, the question of how the administration\u2019s policies will affect CDMOs and smaller drugmakers has remained largely up in the air.<\/p>\n The latest official communication on the Trump administration\u2019s pharma tariffs came in late September, with the suggestion that the U.S. will impose a 100% tariff on any branded or patented pharmaceutical product unless the manufacturer is actively building a plant in the U.S. That rate was originally slated to take effect on Oct. 1, but the administration has apparently paused<\/a> the trade duty rollout as it worked to hash out pricing deals with the drug industry.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in spite of policy uncertainties this year, Samsung Bio has continued to gin up business with U.S. drugmakers.<\/p>\n